Territories

I dont give a damn if you think you have some sort of

right to this place. I dont care what the Shadow looked like
before you got here, and I dont care if youre the best
thing to happen to this land since the Fall. The only thing
that matters is if you can stop me and mine from taking
this place from you. If you can do that, then its yours by
right. If you cant, you had no right trying to call it your
own in the first place.
Jack Timber, Blood Talon

This book includes:

A players guide to helping
design the elements of the
packs territory, complete
with a system for purchasing
elements both helpful and
baneful
A comprehensive guide to
Storytelling the struggles over
territory and incorporating
the territory as a character in
its own right
Five sample territories
to be dropped into any
chronicle

PRINTED IN CHINA
1-58846-333-8 WW30304 $26.99 US

www. worldofdarkness. com

WW30304

By Chris Campbell, James Kiley, Matthew McFarland and Peter Schaefer

World of Darkness created by Mark ReinHagen

Homecoming
The werewolves watched from the brush,
covered in the foliage. They stood still and silent.
The people laughed, hitched their packs onto their
backs and talked about what they hoped to accomplish that weekend.
From a place that neither werewolf nor human could see, the spirits scrambled for their
homes. The tree-spirits fastened their roots tightly
to the soil, while the spirits of rabbit, squirrel, fox
and bird fled to their dens. They knew what was
coming. They had seen the spirits of greed flocking along with the humans, and had watched as
murder-spirits, tiny red-brown creatures with hummingbird-like wings and sharp bat-teeth, clung to
the brush near the werewolves.
One of the humans glanced to her left and
cocked her head. She walked off the path toward
the thick tangle of bushes where the werewolves
lurked. Looking down at the plants, she ran her
fingers across the leaves. Her fingers came back
wet, sticky and red.

Hey, Mike. Judy turned and looked back at

her boyfriend. This look like blood to you?
Mike trudged through the calf-high ground
cover. Brambles cut at his shins. He was sorely
regretting not wearing jeans. He looked down at
Judys hand and then at the leaves she indicated.
Yeah, it does.
What from? You think someones hurt?
Mike shrugged. Probably a deer got bit or
shot or something. He looked around as though
expecting to see a trail or even a wounded animal,
but, quietly, he admitted that if it werent for the
path leading back to the parking lot, hed never
find his way out of the forest. Come on. We need
to set up our tent before the Evening Fire tonight.

Judy wiped her hand on the bandana hanging

out of her pocket and followed him back to the
path. She loved hiking and camping, and if this
was the only way shed get Mike into the woods,
she could cope with a weekend of self-help blather.
Still the blood bothered her. She wasnt
sure why. She had seen dead animals in the forest
before, and Mikes guess about a deer being injured made sense. But the blood had felt warm, as
though it was fresh from an open vein. She looked
back at the spot and thought she saw something
move. Judy shuddered, and hurried to catch up
with the others.

The werewolves withdrew, slinking through

the brush and the shadows down a hill that human
feet would have been hardpressed to traverse. They
leaped across a shallow stream onto a sandy bank
and took their birth forms.
Tuck, youre an idiot, one of them said flatly.
Tucker adjusted his shirt. It was dirty. He
didnt understand how it could be clean before he
changed shape and dirty afterwards, but there it
was. Screw you.
No, really, she pressed. She stood up and
stretched, and then crouched down to the stream.
The wound on her left arm was healing nicely. She
had nearly died in the fight with the thicket-spirit,
but this wound was all that remained. She washed
it in the stream and dug at the scab a bit. She
hoped it would scar. You didnt think to check if
anybody had the site reserved for this weekend?
Goddamn it, Shelly. I am not the only one
who could have done that. I have been working
my ass off to get ready for this. You could have
checked, K.C. could have checked


A rather plump black man, lying on his back
with his hands over his face, snorted. Leave me
out of this. You know I think everythings fine here
the way it is.
Tucker waved a hand at him. Youre wrong,
but thats nothing new. And it doesnt matter what
you think. Crim agrees with me, and were doing
this. Tonight. He kicked a bit of sand at K.C. Unless youd like to argue with her about it.
K.C. gave a noncommittal grunt. He had
argued with their alpha before, and come out
the worse for it. He moved his hands and looked
around the forest. This place was fine, he didnt
know what the others were grousing about. Something about the Shadow, probably, but hed be just
as happy never going there again. What difference
if a few spirits wanted to eat each other?
The three of them waited there. Crimson
would be joining them soon. The forest noises
echoed around them, interrupted every so often by
the whoops and laughter of the humans.
Dont know how were going to do this with
all those idiots out there, muttered Shelly. She
ran her hand through her hair, feeling for the gash
on her scalp. It was already gone. She sighed with
disappointment.
Gotta be tonight, huh? muttered K.C.
Tucker just shook his head.

Crimson had been born Renate Long. She

hated her name. She was black, but the name was
German. She didnt know where her mother had
heard it or why her father had capitulated, because
they had both died before she was three days old.
The hospital had burned, and she had been one of
a handful to live through the fire.
She lived with her aunt and uncle, went to
college for a month, then took her student loan
money and left. She was living on the road, playing guitar on the street for extra cash, when the
Change hit. Shed been in a New York subway
station when it had happened, and when she came
to, there was nothing but thick blood all around.
Crimson had been her first thought, and so she
took that name.
Crimson hated the woods at first. Shed grown
up in the city, but ever since the Change shed
dreamed of the trees. Shed traveled out here to
Gods nowhere in hopes of figuring out what the
hell the dreams meant, but shed found the pack in-

stead. Maybe that was what they meant. Shed long

ago decided that some Cahalith dream and some
sing, and she wasnt a dreamer, thanks anyway.
She was in human form, standing the parking
lot, running a pick through her hair. Shed been
reading the pamphlet these crackers were handing
out to other campers, something about a forest
seminar to reconnect with who you truly are. The
pamphlet mentioned firewalking. It talked about
losing all fear. Crimson read that, and her hands
started to shake with Rage.
Fear tonight, she thought. Fear the moon.

Judy stood in front of a tree, a wooden arrow

pressed against her throat. She took a step forward,
felt a pinch of pain in her jugular notch, and then
watched the arrow break. This is really fucking stupid, she thought.
All around her, other participants were exulting in their triumph over fear. She heard someone say that he was ready to be a man now, not just
a boy. She turned and looked at him. He looked
about 30. Rolling her eyes, she looked around for
Mike. He was still trying to work up the guts to
step forward and break his arrow.
She walked over and shoved him lightly. The
arrow snapped. He gave a yelp of surprise. Judy put
a hand on his shoulder and whispered, Mike, this
is stupid. These are flimsy wooden arrows. What
does this prove?
He turned on her with that smug look her got
when he talked about his latest self-help discovery.
Its about conquering fear, he said. You step into
danger, and then you break it. You put all your fear
into that arrow and watch as you just walk through
it.
Judy rubbed her temples. But theres no danger.
If the arrows had points, that would be dangerous.
Mike looked down and smiled. Not all danger
is danger you can see.
Judy shoved him lightly. Youre so full of shit.
Im gonna go grab some water. Want one?
Mike nodded and grabbed a fresh arrow off the
pile. All of the broken arrows would eventually be
burned for the firewalking ceremony tonight. All
of their fears would go up in smoke. Mike didnt
consider himself a spiritual guy, but he liked the
idea of burning up his fear.
Judy, meanwhile, pulled a bottle of water out
of an ice-filled cooler. The water was part of the

fee for this seminar, otherwise she would never

have stooped to drinking it. She took a long swig
and then spit it out, retching. One of the seminar
mods, an athletic man named Mr. Greene, looked
over. You OK?
She spit again. The water, it tastes like She
looked down. It was just water. Weird, she said.
Tastes weird.
Greene shrugged and went back to guiding
arrows into peoples throats. Judy suspected that
the word had already gotten around about her. She
hadnt chanted much during their Opening Circle,
and Mike had said something to the seminar leader
shortly thereafter. She wasnt concerned about
that, though.
She took another sip of the water, carefully,
and swished it between her teeth. It still tasted like
blood.

The sun was beginning to set. The spirits

flocked to the locus, and found people there. The
locus was a stone in the center of the fire pit, a
stone that had once been used to split the skull of
an escaped slave crossing through this forest. The
stone had been used to kill a child guilty of nothing but bastardry. The stone had cut the hands of
a hundred campers as they tried to light fires here.
The stone had decided it liked blood, and the spirits came here to feed every night.
Some of the spirits, curious about the humans,
thought of crossing the Gauntlet. None of the spirits did. The werewolves were watching. They were
always watching. The spirits remembered when one
of them had slipped through the locus into Twilight and latched onto the body of a pet dog. One
of the werewolves the spirits didnt know her
name, but in their tongue they called her Sa Kul
pounced on the dog and tore it to pieces. When
the spirit fled back to the locus, the spirit found Sa
Kuls pack waiting for it.
The spirits waited near the locus. The tiny
red murder-spirits began to arrive, drawn to the
promise of blood and death like the gnats to the
humans fire. The spirits crouched under trees
and watched through the smoky, hazy lens of the
blood-stone locus, now heated red by the fire atop
it. Years of drinking its Essence had made even the
squirrel-spirits a bit bloodthirsty, and as the gibbous moon rose, tinged with the ash of the fires,
the spirits knew they would see blood tonight.

I cannot believe what youre asking us to do.

Tucker shifted his weight nervously.
Aint asking. Crimson was squatting behind
a tree, taking a piss. Normally, shed shift to wolf
form for that, but she wanted to keep talking, and
she didnt have a good handle on the First Tongue.
There must be 50 people.
I dont give a shit, Tucker. You said this
needed to be done. You said tonight was the night.
She licked her lips. Tonight is the night, she
whispered.
Tucker looked helplessly at Shelly and K.C.
Neither of them spoke. Shelly picked at the gash
on her arm again and pulled out a thorn covered in
blood and fat. K.C. just looked at his shoes. Crim,
dont you think someones going to notice if we kill
50 people?
Crimson stood and pulled up her weathered
cutoffs. She walked around the tree to face her
packmate. She could feel the moon rising, and it
made her skin itch. She wanted to howl, to run, to
fight and fuck and, most of all, to kill. She felt she
could kill those people herself.
She took a deep breath and smelled the
campfire smoke on the wind. It was pleasant the
humans had at least refrained from using lighter
fluid. They arent going to turn up dead, she said.
Were going to drag them into the Shadow, one at
a time, and let them go. Then well kill them. She
stared past Tucker, off into the trees. The stones
going to grow. I know it.
K.C. shuddered. Shit, I dont want that thing
to grow. Its already
Crimson pounced, her slim body swelling to
the red-furred nightmare of her Urshul form. She
pinned her packmate to the ground and snarled.
Grows tonight, she managed, calling on what
little she knew of the Uremehir. Grows with blood
and pain. She let him up, and he slowly clambered
to his feet. She took her birth form again.
Tucker walked behind Crimson and said softly,
You know it doesnt matter if we skip this tonight.
Weve been working at it. The Shadows ready to
change for us. We can finish it when theyve gone.
The alpha turned on him. I had a dream,
Tucker, she rasped. I dreamed of these assholes,
I dreamed of them cutting themselves with plastic
swords and breaking twigs but pretending they
were solid wood. I dreamed of them setting fires
and waving their hands through the smoke, and


pretending it made them brave. You know what I
saw then? Tucker shook his head, mouth open.
His alpha never talked about her dreams. I saw
one of us rise up from the middle of the crowd, and
she said Ill show you fear, and she reached out and
started tearing them to pieces.
Crimson stepped back and addressed all three
of them. Well take them into the Shadow, and
well kill them there. Well put out the fire with
their blood and grind their bones down to sand.
And then you she pointed at Tucker will
say your words and finish the rite. She nodded,
slowly at first, then vigorously. Meet at the north
end of the campsite in two hours. Well start then.
Then the forest will be what we want.
What you want, whispered Tucker, but if
Crimson heard, she didnt turn around.

The humans had raked the coals from their

fires into a long strip. The leaders of the seminar
had already strewn the path with several bags of
dirt so as to avoid a brushfire. Now, the humans
took turns walking across the coals.
Judy stood off to the side and watched. She
hadnt walked yet, and was rather hoping she
wouldnt have to. Not because she was afraid
quite the opposite. She knew that walking
across wood coals wasnt likely to burn anyones
feet, and watched in mild amusement as the people
stumbled across the coals as though they were
performing miracles.
Mike, who had already walked the coals and
jumped triumphantly into the trough of water
at the end, came up to her. Are you ready to do
this?
She looked at him with what she thought was a
smirk, but he just looked frightened. You do know
that this isnt a big deal, right? Youre not going to
get hurt unless you stand still for a minute.
He coughed and looked at the ground. Judy, I
dont know whats the matter
Nothing is the matter, she snapped.
He looked up sharply. Jesus. See, this is what
I mean. Youve been snapping at me like this every
night this month.
Judys eyes narrowed. Youre crazy, she hissed.
Weve been fucking like rabbits every night this
month.
Yeah, that, too, he said. But I feel like youre
going to kill me as soon as were finished. I dont
know what the hells wrong

OK, Judy, your turn! Greene had wandered

over and grabbed Judys shoulders, gently pushing
her toward the coals. He didnt notice that Judy
was panting slightly, or that her eyes had taken on
an odd yellow cast. Hed probably have thought it
was the moonlight, anyway.

Crimson was standing between the trees near

the clearing that the seminar was using as their
campsite. She gazed hungrily at the throngs of
people. It would be difficult, she knew, to pull them
all into the Shadow. She would kill the strongest
and fastest here and take their bodies into the
spirit wilds, then hunt down the others. She felt
a string of drool roll down her chin. Oh, yes, she
thought. Just like the dream.
Tucker was trying to find his voice. This is
wrong, his mind kept screaming. This is so wrong!
The hunter in him agreed. Hunting humans like
this, for no reason, would only bring retribution,
from other humans, other Uratha, even from the
spirits. He considered terminating the rite, reversing all of the progress theyd made over the past
few months but could he even do that? Would
the Shadow change to fit what they had wrought
even without his entreaties now?
Shelly looked in disappointment at her arm.
No scars. She never scarred anymore, no matter what she fought, no matter what bit her. She
suspected silver would leave a scar, but she was too
afraid to try. Maybe after the forest became bloody
and vicious, all over instead of just at the locus,
maybe then it would attract something strong
enough to mark her.
K.C. stood a short way off from his pack. Like
Tucker, he knew this was wrong, but he had seen
the hungry look in his alphas eyes and wanted to
stay as far from her as possible. I hate this place, he
thought. I hate that rock. I hate those fucking spirits.
Crimson glanced up and saw the moon. She
felt strength course through her, and she threw
back her head and screamed in joy, beginning the
hunt.

Judy stood at the front of the path of coals. She

felt heat. Smelled burning wood. Smelled sweat.
Heard chanting. Saw light, fire, screaming faces,
Mikes fear. Smelled blood. Blood crackling and
boiling on a heated stone.
She looked up and saw the gibbous moon, and
heard a howl. No, a scream. A loud, ecstatic

scream, the beginning of something, the jumpingoff point of something hungry. The longest orgasm
shed ever heard. A tearful entreaty to something
shed never known.
She took a step, and stopped. She felt the coals
begin to burn her feet, slowly, the pain rising up
through the soles of her feet.
Greene reached out to grab her. Dont be
afraid, he said. Keep walking.
Judy turned to him and picked him up by the
jaw. She smelled burning hair, heard her clothes
tearing. Ill show you fear, she said, but the words
came out slurred into a snarl.

The werewolves leapt from their hiding places

and charged at the assembled humans but they
were already screaming in fear. Crimson looked
around wildly, trying to figure out what was causing their panic. Its not me, she thought, and this
realization stung. Tucker ran up behind her wearing the Urhan form and whined in confusion.
Then the pack heard the howl. It rose up from
the clearing, drowned out the sounds of screaming humans, the night sounds of the forest, the
crackling of the fire. The howl saturated the forest,
turning every tree, leaf and twig to its haunting
resonance. The howl chased the humans as they
fled into the trees, falling down into the deep valley and slashing their flesh on the thickets. They
looked back, trying to identify the beast behind
them, but there was nothing but the howl.
Judy stood on the coals, now almost nine
feet tall. She was covered in brown fur and lifted
massive, muscular arms to the moon. She held in
her claws Greenes lifeless body, and her lips were
stained with his hearts blood.
The other four werewolves approached, awestruck by the power of her howl. Judy threw the
body into the coals and leaped forward at the pack.
Crimson changed to Urshul form and pounced
at Judy, intending, perhaps, to knock her down
and subdue her. Judy saw the beast springing and
reached forward, catching Crimsons massive body
in her claws and throwing her toward the bonfire.
Judy turned to the rest of the pack, blood on her
fangs and Kuruth eating at her heart.
Its all right, said Tucker. Its over.
Judy stumbled, and dropped back into her
human form. Crimson staggered over, shaking the
embers from her fur, and managed to force herself into her Hishu form as well. The new Uratha


turned to the alpha, looked her up and down, and
recognized her spiritual sister under the gibbous
moon.
Tucker touched his alphas shoulder. This is
enough, he said. Please. We couldnt catch them
if we tried, anyway, but this is enough. I can finish
the rite.
Crimson hadnt taken her eyes off Judy. Lets
do it. She smiled, the disappointment of losing the
hunt melting away. She felt the Cahalunim around
her, around Judy, heard their distant screams and
felt herself shudder as they sang. Shell dream,

Crimson thought, and felt a savage, pulsing joy in

her heart. Shell dream, and Ill sing. This place will
be what we want.
Judy, of course, did not know what they were
talking about. She looked up again to the swelling
moon, and then looked back at her sister. I dont
need to leave this place, she thought. She glanced
over to the fire pit and heard whispers of pain and
fear on the stone inside. She tasted blood on her
lips again, still warm, fresh from the vein, and, for
some reason, she found herself smiling.

Credit s

Written By: Chris Campbell, James Kiley, Matthew

McFarland and Peter Schaefer
World of Darkness created by Mark ReinHagen
Developer: Ethan Skemp
Editor: Scribendi.com
Art Director: Aileen E. Miles
Interior Art: Samuel Araya, John Bridges, Brian LeBlanc,
Torstein Nordstrand
Front Cover Art: Jason Manley
Book Design: Aileen E. Miles

2006 White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
without the prior written permission of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. Reproduction prohibitions do not apply to the character sheets contained in this book
when reproduced for personal use. White Wolf, Vampire and World of Darkness
are registered trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.
Werewolf the Forsaken, Mage the Awakening, Storytelling System, Mysterious
Places and Territories are trademarks of White Wolf Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved. All characters, names,
places and text herein are copyrighted by White Wolf Publishing, Inc.
The mention of or reference to any company or product in these pages is not a challenge to the trademark or
copyright concerned.
This book uses the supernatural for settings, characters and themes. All mystical and supernatural elements
are fiction and intended for entertainment purposes only. Reader discretion is advised.
Check out White Wolf online at
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PRINTED IN CHINA.

TERRITORIES

Table

of

Content s

Prologue : H omecoming 2
Introduct ion 10
C hapter One : Drawing Borders (Player D esign) 14
C hapter Two : M apping the L and (S torytelling) 52
C hapter Three : Lines in the Sand (Sample Territories) 72

Introduction

Introduction

Each advantage of permanent village life has a corresponding disadvantage.

D o people crave company? Yes, but they also ge t on each others nerves.
M arvin H arris, Cannibals and Kings
The moon rises over the city, and a small group
of people meet in a disused basement. After a moment of discussion, they shed their clothes, take on
the forms of wolves and prowl the city. The streets
beneath their feet are concrete, cracked and worn by
weather and cars, but lead to gatherings of prey just
as surely as a game trail in the forest. The Uratha patrol their territory, making sure that the prey remains
prey and that the Uratha remain the predators.
Why do werewolves cling to the notion of keeping and protecting territory? Is it instinct from their
lupine side? Possibly, but werewolves dont simply
hunt in their territories. They often protect their
territories from incursions by Hosts, hostile spirits
and other threats. Many packs police loci to make
sure that spirits dont slip into the material world and
cause problems. This behavior doesnt usually hinder
a werewolfs hunt, so why bother?
Uratha are not wolves or humans, but the Uratha
have the instinct and drives of each. Their wolf nature tells them to hunt, to claim a territory and keep
competing predators out. Their human side compels
them to protect their territory, because if they do not,
the pack and all it holds dear is at risk. Tribal imperatives figure into this equation, as well. The Hunters
in Darkness are bound by their vow to let no sacred
place in their territory be violated. A Blood Talon
might never conceive of surrendering her home, no
matter what the opposition.
Ask a werewolf why she claims territory, though,
and the question might confuse her. The need for
territory is basic, primal and, to the Uratha, a part of
their identity.

The Territorial
C hronicle

That doesnt mean, however, that a Werewolf

chronicle has to take territory and the defense
thereof as a theme. Doing so is very appropriate
thematically, and has a lot of great story potential to

10

boot, and so territory and its role in the chronicle is

the focus of this book.
Weve already discussed, in brief, what drives
Uratha to claim territories. The reasons that a pack
does so, however, are ultimately their own. The more
important question might be, from the standpoint
of the game, why should Uratha characters worry
about territory? Or, even more simply, why is such a
chronicle fun?

World Building

Many players like the notion of designing their

characters strongholds, even if that stronghold is
actually a few city blocks. Knowing whats contained
in that area, what the characters meeting places and
neutral ground are, where the characters go to relax
or plan their hunts and what areas even they avoid
makes the story come alive for the players. The territory, as will be discussed later in this book, is a character in the chronicle just as much as the werewolves
and their enemies, and every character benefits from
detail.
This detail does not have to be present at the
start of the chronicle, of course. Just as characters
grow and develop as players guide them through stories, spend experience points and learn about them,
territories change as the Uratha interact with them.
Indeed, looking at the initial notes on a territory and
realizing how much the pack has changed things, for
better or worse, can be an eye-opening experience for
a player.
The territory can also be an extended metaphor
for the pack. The notion that the king is the land is
a bit extreme for our purposes, but it is certainly true
that werewolves can influence the ambiance of their
territories by changing the Hisil, driving off certain
kinds of spirits and so on. The Rite of the Chosen
Ground and Fortify the Border Marches are ways to
influence the spiritscape of a territory, but the more
well-defined that territory is, the more those rites
mean. Its one thing to say that the Gauntlet in the

11
area grows thicker, but quite another to say that bar
fights in that area decline because the anger-spirits
can no longer influence people as easily.

H ome Is Where

the

H orror Is

The horror genre is always more compelling

when the protagonists have something at stake,
something personal to lose. In Werewolf, the characters main source of personal danger is often their
own fury, which means that everything around them
is in peril. Driving this home to the players, however,
is much easier when the players (and the characters)
are invested in the story and their surroundings. If
the players put time and effort into detailing their
packs territory, they will probably be careful to avoid
Death Rage when inside that territory, lest they
destroy everything theyve worked for. If the territory
isnt fleshed out, though, and simply feels like a city
or a neighborhood, the perceived danger of Kuruth
is severely lessened, and, therefore, so is the horror
surrounding it.
This principle applies to external threats as
well. Uratha shouldnt be willing to cut and run
the minute something comes into their territory to
threaten them. While a wise pack recognizes when it
is overpowered, the characters should be able to use
their knowledge of their territory, its geography and
history, to repel invaders. The possibility that the
characters could lose their homes to another pack
or a stranger menace such as the Hosts or even an
idigam should be enough to ground your chronicle in
the genre of savage horror but this requires that
the players know what their characters are fighting
for. That means that the territory needs to feel like
home to the characters. When the players and the
Storyteller are willing to put in the requisite amount
of effort in order to evoke this feeling, however, the
chronicle achieves a much greater level of drama and
excitement. If the players feel that they know their
characters home, the players can share the characters elation when they successfully fend off attackers
or root out a persistent threat.

C hoosing

Territory

A few basic principles of territory choice, however, are worthy of consideration at the very beginning. What, for instance, does the packs choice of
territory say about that pack? A pack that goes out of
its way to claim an urban territory might be composed of Uratha who grew up in large cities, but then
they might also be Iron Masters who feel a spiritual
compulsion to hunt in the concrete jungle. A pack

that will only claim a rural territory with a great deal

of land might have too many members for a smaller
hunting ground, or the members might be uncomfortable around each other and need the space. A
pack with an enemy might claim territory near them
to stage attacks.
Another important consideration when deciding
upon a setting for a chronicle is whether that setting
is meant to be a real place or a fictional city. Both
approaches have their advantages and drawbacks, of
course. Likewise, the troupe might wish their packs
territory to be in a milieu with which they are familiar, or a more exotic setting.

Realit y

The major advantage to using a real city is that

most of the hard work deciding on a citys population, major industry and geography is already
done for you. All you need to do is find an atlas or
look online for a wealth of information about most
cities. Chapter Two contains more information about
researching cities and to what degree research is necessary, but the benefit of simply being able to look up
such facts rather than make them up is clear. If the
players are inclined to do this sort of research, using a
real city is of even more benefit because it allows the
players to find the nuances of the area that they find
interesting on their own time.
Unfortunately, small towns dont normally get
comprehensive treatment online, although information such as population numbers is usually possible
to find. Still, the ability to find a street map of the
territory and mark off areas that the characters have
claimed, designated as neutral ground or still want to
investigate saves a great deal of time for the Storyteller.

Familiarit y

Using the troupes hometown or an area that all

of the players know well can be a way to introduce
a degree of verisimilitude into the chronicle. The
players can picture their characters slinking down familiar streets, hunting through local parks or washing
the blood from their fur in a nearby lake. Resources
for the chronicle are only a short walk or drive away,
and anyone the players meet on the street can serve
as inspiration for Storyteller characters.
The problem with using such locales is that the
players sometimes feel strange about introducing
horror, death and savage fury into an area that they
know personally. If you do use such a location, be
sensitive to the players. Dont include people that the

Choosing a Territory

Introduction

troupe knows personally as Storyteller characters.

While everyone involved understands (or should)
that the game is fictional, hearing a description of
someone that the player knows well being torn apart
by a frenzied werewolf can still be a bit uncomfortable.
On the other hand, including such unpleasant
details can be a way to drive home the threat under
which the Uratha live, and can serve to heighten the
drama of the chronicle. Just be receptive to the needs
and comfort levels of the other players, and know
when to back off.

Fict ional Locales

Working with a setting that the Storyteller or

the entire troupe creates out of whole cloth takes
quite a bit of effort, but can be very rewarding. If the
troupe works together on creating the setting for the
chronicle, the members know the setting well and
will feel comfortable adding details along the way
without worrying about contradiction from a realworld source. A fictional city can easily be based on
an existing one (comic books, for instance, have been
doing this for years). The troupe can use Paris, Los
Angeles or even a smaller city such as Indianapolis
or Sacramento as a basis, but change the name and
any other details necessary to add a sense of discovery to the chronicle. If the chronicle takes place in a
fictional city, the players never have to feel as though
their characters events are hampered by real-world
events (the players really shouldnt feel that way anyway, but its sometimes hard to shake such notions).
Creating a fictional city isnt easy, of course. Even
if all the troupe does is pick a real city and change
a few names around, the players still need to know
enough about the city to set the chronicle there. It
is possible, of course, to simply create a name and
a skeletal history and make up the details as the
chronicle progresses, but this can result in the city
feeling false and rootless. That isnt the feeling that
the troupe should be looking for in a territory-centered chronicle. Without the feeling of the area being
home to the characters, the players might have
trouble being invested in protecting it.

E xot ic Locales

A strange and exotic territory presents a number

of advantages to the troupe. For one thing, a territory
with a distinct culture and flavor allows the players
to consider what Uratha who grew up in that culture
would be like. A Blood Talon Ithaeur raised on a
Navajo reservation is likely to express his spirituality

12

and warriors ethic in a very different way than one

who grew up in San Franciscos Chinatown.
Also, given the fantastic nature of Storytelling
games, choosing a territory that is exotic and distinct
from the troupes experience is entirely appropriate. If
the players all grew up in Midwestern suburbs, setting
the chronicle in any big city can feel exotic. This
brings up another point exotic is a subjective
term. What one player might find exotic and enticing, another player might find dull if she knows it
well. (On the other hand, that dichotomy of knowledge can make for interesting roleplaying between
the two players, as one learns about the others
culture.)
The biggest drawback to an exotic territory is the
amount of work required to represent the territory
fairly. If one of the players knows the area, the workload is lessened, but if none of the players have ever
visited the area, the presentation can feel forced or
artificial. This might not be something that concerns
the troupe, especially if the players dont know the
difference, but some players are more concerned than
others with accuracy.
In general, though, accurately presenting what an
area is like in real life should take a backseat to the
mood and feel of the World of Darkness. In real life,
after all, werewolves, vampires and other monsters
dont lurk in our shadows, and its fair to assume that,
in a world with such predators about, things would be
subtly different. The important thing is to make the
territory real to the players, and that often means getting at least a few of the details right.

C hapter

by

C hapter

Chapter One: Drawing Borders discusses

selecting territories and helps players be aware of the
options for doing so and the advantages and drawbacks of various kinds of domains. This chapter also
presents new game systems for representing territorial
changes and evolution.
Chapter Two: Mapping the Land presents
advice for the Storyteller on fleshing out existing
territories and using the territory as a character in a
chronicle. Also present are pointers for how territories can change with and without the characters
involvement and a list of potential encounters and
events that the Storyteller can use to springboard
stories.
Chapter Three: Lines in the Sand consists of
five sample territories to use in your chronicles a
small town, a stretch of wilderness, a section of city,
a swath of suburbia and a incipient war zone. These

13
places may serve either as refuges for the characters
or as enticing goals for them to achieve. Some of
these territories are written as specific places, but
can easily be shifted to any locale that the chronicle
requires. Other territories are more general, with no
real geographical location intended but still full of
easy-to-use hooks, characters and places worth fighting over.

Inspirat ions
The Shield: If there is a better example for a morally-conflicted pack of Uratha and their interactions

with their territory than Vic Mackey and his Strike

Team, it hasnt revealed itself yet. The Shield is a
violent and harsh look at the tradeoffs that police
officers have to make while ruling their territory.
SimCity: The video game series. No, really. It
only gives the birds-eye view of a city and the level
of control that a mayor or city manager might have.
But the games simulation does a good job of working
through what would happen if a major new entity
appears in town (police station, university, etc.) and
what would happen if other areas are allowed to
decay.

Choosing a Territory

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

14

Chapter

15

Drawing Borders

I took a step back and tried not to piss my pants. The big guy he had no shirt on and
scars up and down his torso had leaned his head straight back and was screaming wordlessly at the stars. His friends seemed just as angry they were yelling and screaming at me,
too. I couldnt understand every word they were saying. But they were furious.
I was sure I would die. I dont remember going down to my knees, and I dont remember my
exact words, but they went something like, Oh God I swear Im just lost I dont have any idea
where I am please dont hurt me Ive been wandering around for three days I sprained my ankle I
cant keep any food down I ate a bug please I didnt mean to come to your campsite I just want
to go home please dont hurt me.
I went on like this for a while. Long enough that they stopped screaming and yelling at
the sky and just let me babble until I trailed off, please my mother told me something like
this would happen and I guess she was right just please dont kill me or hurt me Once I went
quiet, they got into arguing with one another.
The dark woman said, I dont think theyre all gone, but Scar Guy shook his head.
Theyre all gone, every one of them. Look around. Human feet on the hill. Which one of
you idiots was keeping an eye out? I dont know who the they were.
The blond guy said, It was me, but dammit, Bill, how the hell could I be expected to anticipate something like this? Were more than a day from the nearest road! Humans dont wander
across this forest for fun.
The girl she couldnt have been more than 14 said, Are you kidding? Cant you smell
her? Shes got some kind of bug. I would guess that shes been shitting herself for at least a
day.
It was true, I had been. I dont know what the bug was, but I had drank some water right
out of a stream the day before yesterday. Bad choice, I guess.
The blond guy said, She came from downwind!
The big, scarred guy pointed a finger at me, and spoke to me. No living human has crossed
onto this hill. Ever. Ever. Its the last patch of virgin land in this forest. It may be the last patch
of virgin forest east of the Mississippi. And you, you blind, stupid, coward, pathetic, lost retard,
you just blundered across it. Youve ruined it. You may as well have wiped a handful of shit
across it. Its gone forever. And youre going to pay for it.
The blond guy put a hand on the scarred guys shoulder, and said, No, Bill. Killing her wont
do any good. Scar Guy spun around to face the blond. There was a tearing noise, and growling.
I dont know what happened then. Things went kind of dark.
I ran and ran and ran.

Section Title

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

E ven

the oldest villages are inde bted to the border of wild wood which
surrounds them , more than to the gardens of men.

H enry David Thoreau

D esign

There are several different ways that a Storyteller and

troupe can come together and determine a chronicles setting. The main intention of Territories is to provide players with the tools they need to help the Storyteller design
the chronicles setting. The default assumption is still that
players and Storytellers might work together to design a
packs territory without resorting to rules or sourcebooks.
Depending on what your troupe prefers, Territories can
serve as inspiration and example rather than as a hard set
of rules. Alternately, you may prefer to use some kind of
rules set to design the players packs territory. There are
two main ways for such a group to design the packs territory: Storyteller-driven or cooperatively.

S toryteller-Driven D esign
For some chronicles, the Storyteller may do all of
the setting design herself she probably has strong ideas
about the features she wants to see in the setting. For
instance, in a setting where the characters are all newcomers to their territory (as in the free demo Werewolf:
The Forsaken chronicle, Manitou Springs, available at
http://www.white-wolf.com/), the Storyteller may prefer
that the players be as ignorant as the characters with
respect to the setting. Storyteller-driven design may be
the best choice for a troupe whose players who are new to
the World of Darkness in general and to Werewolf: The
Forsaken specifically ignorance of setting details can
help players better model their characters own ignorance
of their circumstances and surroundings. Other troupes
might traditionally entrust the Storyteller with these
kinds of responsibilities, and prefer not to deviate from a
model that works well for them.
Storytellers who want to design their packs territories have a relatively free hand, but here is a suggested
approach:
1. Pick a dozen or so elements from the element list
below be sure to include at least a few elements from
each section that is appropriate. Feel free to repeat elements if necessary there may be multiple apartment
buildings, or multiple farms or multiple spirit catalyst sites,
in a given territory.
2. Relate those elements to one another geographically. If you are setting the game in a real place that you
are familiar with, you may already have some ideas in
mind. If you are setting the game in an invented place or
you arent too concerned with real-world geography (as
might be the case with a real city that none of the troupe
has ever visited or a game set in the past or future), get out
a piece of paper and pencil. Draw a circle on the page that

16

represents the center of the packs territory (possibly the

locus but not necessarily). Pick another element, draw it as
a circle and draw a line between the two if they are adjacent. Repeat this process, moving outward, until you have
hit every element and figured out how they all fit together.
You may discover that you need a few other elements to fit
the territory together better. You might prefer to do this
with 3x5 cards, moving them around until youre happy
with the result, or use a computerized drawing/brainstorming tool.
3. Name your elements. Even minor streams have
names. This is easier if youre working from a real place,
but here is a great opportunity to foreshadow or otherwise
hint at plot hooks buried in ordinary-seeming locations.
Naming a generic apartment building the Phoenix Gate
Arms instead of the East City Apartments is one way to
go here though that particular example may be a little
over-the-top for some groups. You may at this point start
to work out which important Storyteller characters are
around at each element and what story hooks will hang on
each element, but that certainly isnt a requirement.
4. Present your players with the surface map you
have created. Dont give them your notes on story hooks
and so on, but the packmembers will quickly learn what
the important features of their territory are, so use this
opportunity to cut out that wasted time.
5. Work with players to determine where their homes
are, as well as the general locations of any Allies, Contacts, Mentors or Retainers. Some of these may be outside
of the packs territory; others may roam around. But those
who can reliably be found should be determined.
6. Offer players the opportunity to add to the territory with Merits. Most territory elements include a
Merit cost. A player who wants to associate one or more
particular territory elements with his character (or with
the pack in general) may wish to spend Merit points or
experience points to add those elements to the packs
territory. The Storyteller, as always, has veto power over
these purchases.
The expenditure of Merit points should represent
the characters getting involved in some way. If one player
really just wants to make sure there is a decent bar in the
packs territory and spends his Merit points appropriately,
thats fine, but usually the investment of Merit points
means that the character is personally involved he inherited that farm, or he won that bar in a bet. He doesnt
have to own it, but he should have a personal stake in it.
Characters can have a pleasant, decent territory
without spending any points at all. However, this option

17
allows them to spend their own resources to shape parts of
the territory as they see fit.

Cooperat ive D esign

Other troupes might prefer to work cooperatively
with the Storyteller or even work entirely without the
Storyteller to generate their packs territory. Certainly that
is this books recommendation: players will have a greater
sense of investment in their packs territory if they have
helped to design it.
Perhaps each player selects two or three territory
features, or the group collectively works from a high-level
design. Players may prefer to work forward from their other
Merits such as Allies, Contacts, Mentors, and Totem,
determining which features are necessary to support each
of those characters, and then fill in connective tissue
between them.
Important note: In cooperative design, it is not
expected that players characters pay for territory features
Merit costs. Merit costs are intended for Storyteller-driven
design, above.
Obviously, the Storyteller can participate here, pointing out necessary elements to the territory, or things she
wants to make sure to include for her own devious story
reasons.

Wh y Tak e

Bad Feature?

In cooperative design, there is no apparent incentive to include negative elements in

a packs territory (elements with no Merit cost
or with more negative parts than positive ones).
The Storyteller may wish to insert a few negative
elements into a packs territory in order to present more of a challenge to the characters.
But players may wish to take negative features of their own accord. The reason is simple:
negative features make for fun gameplay. No one
wants to play a Werewolf: The Forsaken chronicle wherein every week the pack lounges around
a nightclub and basks in the safety of its home
territory. Having a few bad places within the
packs territory gives the characters something to
do at home business they have to attend to in
their own backyard.
In the World of Darkness in the 21 st
century, few territories are pristine and
beautiful. The only ones that really are pleasant
places for werewolves are those places that
werewolves have worked hard to make that
way. Having the packs territory start out as
damaged goods and improve over time is a
tangible representation of the packs progress as
Uratha.

After the group finishes putting together its territory,

it is up to the Storyteller to determine the local spirit
population and its internal interactions:
Which groups of spirits hate one another?
Which ones deal with one another?
What are the sources of competition among them?
At the same time, the Storyteller can work out what
the neighbors are like and (generally) what territory they
control. What features in the immediate area are contested or poorly-patrolled? What features are especially
attractive and may soon be contested?

Territory Feat ures

Every packs territory has one or more features associated with it. The features that the group describes through
these guidelines are not the only locations in the packs
territory. They are simply the most noteworthy features in
the area. There may be (for instance) dozens of apartment
buildings in the packs territory, but the one that the players define through these guidelines is the one where the
interesting stuff is most likely to occur.

Feat ure D escript ions

Every feature description has most of the following
components to it:
Creating: The means by which a pack of Uratha
might bring such an element into its territory during
actual play. This section doesnt describe how such an
element is added as part of game preparation; as discussed
above, such things are largely a matter of negotiation and
planning between players and Storyteller. This may involve some magic; creating may be outright impossible in
non-geologic timeframes. In many cases, creating requires
an extended roll of some kind.
Eliminating: As with Creating, this heading describes the way that a pack can destroy a feature within its
territory. In many cases, eliminating requires an extended
roll of some kind, possibly aided by rituals, spirits or Gifts.
The destruction of a territory feature almost always leaves
something behind, and this heading generally describes
what is left behind.
Benefits (free-form): In a more free-form game, in
which Storyteller and players cooperate to design the
packs territory, these are the sorts of benefits that the
characters are likely to receive for tending to this feature.
The Storyteller may rule differently on any of these benefits, or change them as she sees fit. The dice pool bonuses
and penalties provided by a territory feature are sample
circumstance bonuses.
Merit: If a player wishes to bring a feature into a territory, he can always purchase the feature as a Merit. This
section describes the cost of buying the feature as a Merit.
Note that purchasing a feature as a Merit incurs all the
benefits and problems described in the free-form benefits
section.
Territory Features

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

Resonance: The resonance (if any) of any Essence
harvested from the place. Not every location with a given
Resonance entry will generate that kind of Essence but
this entry tells the most likely resonance if there is any
resonance at all. Note that it may take time for an element
to begin generating Essence; a cemetery wont begin generating Essence or have a powerful resonance with only a
few burials.
Problems and Hooks: Every territory feature (even if
bought as a Merit) brings with it difficulty, story hooks and
Storyteller characters. These hooks are for the Storytellers
inspiration, and players should not expect to see every
hook listed in their territory.

Territory Size
There is no set minimum or maximum size for a
packs territory. A pack can hold as much land as the pack
can hold though, as modern werewolves say, You cant
hold Wyoming. The average pack tries to hold as much
territory as it can reasonably patrol every day. That doesnt
mean that the pack does patrol every day, simply that it
could.
A pack in the middle of the Great Plains might carve
out an entire county as much as 1,000 square miles.
No pack could patrol such an area on foot every day, even
in Urhan or Urshul form, but this is the 21st century (see
Patrolling Your Territory, below, for tips on patrolling).
Such a large area requires a large pack, good communication and favorable terrain. Throw a few mountains and
woods into the area, and youd best cut your territory
considerably.
Any pack of Uratha can claim any territory the pack
wants. Most use one of the minor Gifts from the Warding
list to do so, though the pack can simply piss on landmarks to declare a particular space off-limits to wolves and
other werewolves. But the pack must be able to hold that
territory.

Patrolling Your Territory

Four quick tips on patrolling your territory.
You dont have to do it in person. Read local
newspapers. (Especially those free local tabloids composed mostly of ads for escort services. These papers dont
have any sense of propriety, and therefore unlike the
so-called mainstream media they might mention the
weird stuff that poses a danger to your territorys integrity.)
Listen to local radio stations. (Especially AM talk radio.
Again no sense of propriety.) Read local blogs and websites. Talk to members of the local freak/outcast contingent the dope dealers, the homeless, the performance
artists, the day laborers. Develop plenty of local Contacts
in these areas.
Use magic when you can Several rites and Gifts
can assist in tracking down spirits and humans who violate the Gauntlet or otherwise interfere with your packs
territory. Several Gifts from the Crescent Moon, Insight

18

and Knowledge lists can help patrol a territory. Gifts from

the Warding list let your pack control and define the areas
it has to patrol. Summoning and Binding rites allow the
pack to enlist spirit allies in its patrol whether willing
or not.
but this is the 21st century. Get a good satellite
map of your territory. Buy cell phones or good walkietalkies. Use vehicles. If you have a big, underdeveloped
territory, get a Jeep. Vehicles wont help in every situation,
but if you need to get several miles overland quickly, Ford
is faster than Urshul. Use spotting equipment binoculars, if nothing else. If youre covering 1,000 square miles
of central South Dakota, youll have to cover around 500
linear miles a day if you can see half a mile in all directions. If you can see a mile in each direction, you can cut
that patrol time down by two hours. Binoculars wont help
you spot problems in the spirit world, but humans cause as
many problems as spirits do.
Get high and low. Outside of impossibly flat
areas such as Kansas, your territory will have high points
hills, ridges, tall buildings and so on. Hit them. Youll
have a better chance of noticing strange things going on
with sky-spirits, and sometimes that high perspective will
give you a chance to notice things below that you wouldnt
ordinarily notice. On the other side of the coin, almost
every part of the world has underground infrastructure or
natural caves. Spirits, monsters and humans who prefer to
spend their time out of the sunlight will lurk down there,
where you cant see them.

The Application of Terror

to Human Institutions
Many political, religious and criminal organizations in the World of Darkness and the real
world apply terrorist tactics to their opponents
and ordinary civilians in the hopes of achieving
specific aims. A pack of Uratha may attempt to
use the same sorts of tactics to drive humans
away from a particular location or otherwise
bludgeon humans toward the packs goals. In
Werewolf, these sorts of activities are compounded by the Lunacy and werewolves inherent
magical abilities.
The players pack may wish to engage in this
sort of activity in order to achieve the packs aims
at some point. The players may wish to drive the
Winters family away from a farm that sits near a
catalyst site, or the players might want to force a
nearby factory into idleness so that they can use
its husk as a base of operations.
Storytellers and players should take a few
minutes and have a serious conversation about
their level of comfort with these kinds of storylines. In the modern world, the application of
terrorist tactics to achieve personal aims can be
a polarizing subject, to say the least. Some play-

19
ers may not be comfortable playing the role of
terrorist even in a Storytelling game, and that
is certainly their right. On the other hand, this
sort of activity may seem entirely appropriate
for a game of savage fury, and may work well
to emphasize the werewolves role as terrifying
creatures of the night.
Some considerations:
Humans react unpredictably to Lunacy and
terror tactics. Even within the boundaries of
Lunacy, there is no easy way to know how humans will respond to the sight of werewolves in
the night. Some humans will flee at once, others
will go catatonic. Still others will react violently.
When presented with horrific violence, exploding bombs, rioting and so on, a given human
cannot be predicated to respond in a given way.
Over the long run, an institution of humans will
react to such events with stepped-up security
and heightened awareness (+1 o r more dice to
Perception pools). This will make the werewolves
goals more difficult to achieve.
Humans react more predictably to the
inexplicable. The above descriptions assume that
humans are responding to things they think they
understand murders, explosions and so on.
In the modern day, many humans will respond
violently and defiantly to any terror that they
see as the work of a sentient being or group.
Humans are much more likely to flee from
things that they consider to be the senseless acts
of an uncaring universe (such as the application
of many unnatural-seeming Gifts and rites).

Rural

Rural features represent places with relatively light

human populations. Any of these sites can be placed
within a more urban locale (there are still horse stables in
the heart of New York City today), but such rural sites are
more likely to be found in the countryside.

Caverns/Tunnels
Certain parts of the country are riddled with underground passages of all shapes and sizes. Some are ordinary
limestone caverns, while others are leftover mines or
other, stranger things. This feature expressly refers to tunnels large enough for a human (or, at least, an Urhan-form
werewolf) to pass through. This feature can exist in urban
settings as well, but, in that case, cavern/tunnel refers to
subway tunnels, broad sewer tunnels or gigantic 1950s-era
fallout shelters.
Creating: Uratha can create caverns or underground
tunnels of their own by digging for weeks or months.
Keeping such tunnels from collapsing requires a Science
roll (and possible reinforcement) for every 100 feet of passageway.

Eliminating: Cave-in is the fastest way to eliminate

an unwanted cave or tunnel. This can be accomplished
with heavy equipment, through an earthquake or flash
flood or with explosives.
Benefits (free-form): Earth elementals, spirits of
burrowing mammals, spirits of bats and other nocturnal
creatures are drawn to caverns: +2 dice to summon such entities. +1 die to Survival dice pools that revolve around the
need for shelter. In addition, caverns provide invisible and
silent transport between different parts of a packs territory.
Pick two (or more, at the Storytellers discretion) features of
your packs territory; these caverns open in both of those areas, and your pack can move from one to the other through
these tunnels. Caverns lack the strong odors of the surface
world: +1 die to track by smell underground.
Merit:
Resonance: Earth, stone, darkness
Problems and Hooks: Excavation or flash flooding can unearth things that were best left buried in
this case, powerful chthonic-spirits that were exiled to
underground imprisonment by Father Wolf and his get,
many thousands of years ago. Such a creature might well
be comparable to one of the idigam; unearthing it is a true
disaster.

Cliff/Ridge
A high point where the ground falls away steeply to
one or both sides, a ridge is a very defensible point that
provides good visibility; it may be long or relatively narrow.
Creating or Eliminating: Geologic structures of this
magnitude cannot be casually created or destroyed. Portions of a ridge might be destroyed with high explosives or
heavy machinery.
Benefits (free-form): +2 to Wits dice pools to detect
approaching people or spirits; +2 to Stealth dice pools
to hide from those coming up from lower ground. Cliffs
and ridges are usually steep enough that they cannot be
climbed without special equipment.
Merit:
Resonance: Peril, defense, flight or sky
Problems and Hooks: Native American tribes in the
southwestern United States sometimes built their cities
into cliffs or ravines; in those regions, Uratha may have to
deal with spirits that expect to be dealt with according to
ancient human tradition.

D esert
A desert isnt defined by its heat, but rather by
its aridity. Deserts are nearly bereft of water. They do
carry life its just that the life in a desert is especially
well-adapted to the desert. Desert areas that have other
features (beyond barren wasteland) should be represented
by those features and the Arid descriptor (see below).
Creating: Creating a desert is easier than you might
think. Admittedly, its nearly impossible for a pack of
Uratha to change rainfall patterns or divert rivers. HowevRural

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

er, it doesnt matter how much water falls in an area if the

land cant hold the water. Eliminate ground cover (trees
and even scrub) and topsoil wont hold in place. Once the
topsoil has floated downriver or blown away, the land will
be unable to hold water for long, and the land becomes a
desert. This process naturally takes several years.
A pack might choose to drive off all the water-spirits
in an area. That alone will not create a desert, but will
speed the process described above so that it can be accomplished in a single year.
Eliminating: Deserts are harder to eliminate than to
create. Repeated summonings of water elementals could
help replenish the local landscape, but such summoning
should accompany fertility rites and widespread planting
of ground cover. This process is rarely done, and takes
years unless it is done with the aid of very powerful spirits.

20

Benefits (free-form): 2 dice to summon spirits of

water or cold. +2 dice to summon spirits of heat or fire. +1
die to pools used to resist temperature extremes a pack
with a desert area in its territory knows how to avoid the
worst of the heat. The intense heat and aridity in a desert
are conducive to hallucinations; characters who spend
more than four hours in the desert without water or heat
protection may make Occult rolls to attempt to pull meaning from the mirages that they see.
Merit:
Resonance: Desperation, heat, solitude
Problems and Hooks: See p. 181 of the World of
Darkness Rulebook, Temperature Extremes, for the
effects of extreme heat. Deserts make good hiding places
for refugees and runaways of both the spirit and fleshy
persuasions.

21

Fallow Prairie
In human-inhabited areas, almost all land that can be
farmed is being farmed or has been farmed. This territory
feature refers specifically to treeless land that is no longer
being farmed or, much more rarely, treeless land that has
never been farmed.
Creating: After driving off the farmers and farmspirits associated with a farm in your territory, wait a few
seasons, and what was once a farm should have returned
to a fallow state. Eliminating farm-spirits and attracting
spirits of the wild plain can speed up this process to take
less than a season.
Eliminating: Encourage farming or real estate development.
Benefits (free-form): The Gauntlet thins in fallow
prairie, improving dice pools to step sideways by 1 die
compared to surrounding areas. Spirits of small mammals
and those that hunt them are attracted to such lands; +1
die to pools to summon all such spirits (hunters or prey).
Uratha familiar with a given stretch of prairie can cross
it quickly and stealthily; +1 die to Athletics and Stealth
pools to move around in familiar prairie.
Merit:
Resonance: The wild or wilderness, loss of control,
rebirth
Problems and Hooks: Depending on the local mortal
population density, such an area may not last long; it may
be bought and turned into farmland, housing or a shopping mall. Werewolves who wish to prevent this may have
to buy it on their own (typically at least a Resources
activity) or otherwise prevent others from buying it.

Factory Farm
A factory farm is a large farm containing scores if
not hundreds of animals of a small number of species.
The animals are kept in relatively confined spaces and
are either grown to a certain size and then slaughtered, or
kept around for their breeding or (egg or milk) production
capabilities.
Creating: Factory farms require a more considerable
investment to create. Depending on size, most require
from three to four dots in Resources to start up.
Eliminating: As with many of the features in this section, a factory farm can be temporarily eliminated by destroying the farm building and/or slaughtering the animals
within (such animals are not adapted to life in the wild
and surely would not last a season on their own). However,
many factory farms are owned by multinational conglomerates, which see such destruction as an unavoidable cost
of doing business. Such a company will simply charge the
loss against its insurance, rebuild and continue.
Benefits (free-form): Well theres the effectively
free food for hungry wolf types. Theres an intense concentration of a single type of animal-spirit. These benefits
are offset by the brutal drawbacks.

Merit:
Resonance: Mechanization, slaughter, abundance
Problems and Hooks: Effluent pools containing waste
products from hundreds or thousands of chickens, pigs or
cows can damage the water table and air quality for miles
in all directions. In the World of Darkness, factory farms
also attract powerful spirits of pain and cruelty and spawn
new and unique horrors of their own. In addition, factory
farms in the World of Darkness have even fewer animalhealth controls built in, which may lead to exciting rare
diseases entering the human food supply without warning
or control.
A factory farm may generate or reflect a Wound in
the spirit world.

Farm
This sort of feature refers to relatively small family
farms, rather than the factory farms described above. A
farm in a packs territory can provide relatively safe land
to roam on or otherwise use. Farms dont typically attract
wilderness-spirits, and the plant-type spirits that the farms
attract are unusually docile, as these spirits are the reflections of heavily subjugated plant life.
Creating: Even with century-old equipment, a
concerted pack would need no more than a week to clear,
plow and plant a few acres of farm. Certainly, a pack
would need more time for a larger farm or to clear forest
rather than fallow prairie. The Storyteller may require Science rolls to enable this (taking advantage of any farmingrelated specialties). Few werewolf packs are likely to farm
on their own; many may take advantage of farms within
their territory.
Eliminating: A pack that wants to eliminate a
functional farm in a hurry may burn its fields, slaughter its
animals and destroy its irrigation. None of these require
dice rolls unless they take place while (for instance) angry
farmers attempt to kill the werewolves.
Benefits (free-form): Farms provide a ready source of
food to werewolves. In human form, Uratha can eat anything a farm produces, while in lupine forms, Uratha can
certainly cull a farms livestock. A pack with a moderately
sized farm can provide every member with Resources
at no cost (though higher levels of the Resources Merit
still cost as normal a pack can sustain itself on farms
output, but livestock and crops wont buy them a laptop
or Cadillac). The very existence of a farm thickens the
Gauntlet slightly as humans impose order on the natural
world; impose a 1 die penalty on pools to step sideways
while on a farm.
Merit: (or within city limits)
Resonance: Food, fertility, slaughter, peace or pacification
Problems and Hooks: Agriculture was humanitys
first imposition of rules on wild things. Farms may attract
spirits of compulsive order or even those prone to enslave
other spirits. Additionally, it turns out that farmers dont
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Chapter I: Drawing Borders

care for wolves, particularly those that steal livestock.
Uratha who abuse local farms may find themselves picking
lead shot from their hides.

Glacier/Icepack/Tundra
This territory element is an area that is always (or
nearly always) cold, with deep snow and/or glacial ice
covering the ground for most of the year.
Typically, such lands are represented by the Cold
descriptor (see below), but a pack may control a large temperate territory with some area beyond the arctic circle.
Creating: The cold temperatures necessary to create
such a landscape are beyond the resources of most Uratha.
The invocation of a powerful spirit of the winter may be
enough to temporarily create an area of this sort.
Eliminating: Global climate change is already eliminating some southern glaciers; otherwise, without magical
assistance, artificially warming an area sufficiently to
eliminate this feature is impossible.
Benefits (free-form): Water is always easy to find, so
Survival rolls to avoid thirst always succeed. A werewolf
familiar with a patch of cold terrain in her packs territory
receives +1 die on rolls to resist temperature extremes; +2
dice to summon spirits of cold or winter; 2 dice to summon spirits of summer or heat.
Merit:
Resonance: Cold, sleep
Problems and Hooks: Regular rolls are necessary
while outdoors, to withstand the cold of this region see
p. 181 of the World of Darkness Rulebook, Temperature
Extremes, for details. Wildlife is relatively scarce; Uratha
hunting for food need eight successes rather than five to
find enough food for a person for a day.

L andfill

or Garbage D ump
The average American generates around four pounds
of trash per day. Thats paper, plastic, glass, metal and
inedible foodstuffs, just for starters. In a large city, humans
generate 15,000 tons of trash per week, or more. That stuff
has to go somewhere.
Garbage dumps have their own ecosystems insects
feed on organic waste, rats and gulls feed on insects and
on organic waste, cats and coyotes feed on them and so
on. Its a vile circle of life. Dumps therefore attract spirits
from various animal choirs, as well as artifact-spirits associated with non-organic discards.
Some homeless humans may make a home out of a
dump; the food found there may not be much good, but
scavenging recyclables and burnables can help a desperate
human eke out a few more days.
Creating: In the World of Darkness, getting a given
site established as a trash heap doesnt take a lot of work.
All you need is some unloved land, a lot of junk and time.
Eliminating: If all the trash in a landfill were exposed
to the elements and scavengers, the organic stuff would
probably be gone in a year or so. But, of course, the mate-

22

rial is piled high rather than spread thin. Neither scavengers nor weather can get at anything not on the surface
brave explorers have found intact, readable newspapers
just a few feet down from the surface of a dump. Even if all
the organic material were destroyed, glass, plastic, metal,
silicon and harsh chemicals would be left that shouldnt
have gotten into the waste stream in the first place. A
landfill requires a long cleanup, and even then, the stuff
has to be put somewhere. Fire-spirits and unendingly
ravenous spirits of consumption and decay might speed
the process, but millions of tons of waste might have to be
eliminated for a landfill to be truly destroyed.
Benefits (free-form): A dump has an unlimited supply of free food for werewolves with strong enough stomachs and the gulls and rats that frequent such places
make even better food. It helps to have access to Gifts that
protect against toxins such as heavy metals in your diet.
In addition, the extreme plentitude of stuff to be found in
a dump means that a good scavenger pack can get nearly
anything it needs. +2 dice to all Survival pools to find
food or scavenge low-grade equipment. Such a wide variety of spirits frequent a trash pile that Uratha can summon any scavenger-oriented natural spirit, artificial spirit
or appropriate conceptuals with +1 dice to their pools to
do so (and Storytellers may be convinced to allow an even
broader range to receive that circumstance bonus). Third,
the treacherous footing on a garbage heap requires Dexterity + Athletics rolls from anyone not intimately familiar
with the feature (the pack wont need to make such rolls
after spending a month patrolling the dump, or if this
feature is bought as a Merit).
Merit:
Resonance: Secrets, abundance, destruction
Problems and Hooks: For an interesting twist on the
garbage dump, consider a garbage scow drifting from port
to port, looking for a place to dump its cargo.
As dumps tend to attract rats, they also attract
Beshilu, which means, in turn, that a dump may well have
a few spots with extremely thin Gauntlet. Many spirits
might use the dump as a crossing point from the Hisil to
the flesh world; perhaps the spirits at the dump, or the
Beshilu, extract a toll from such border-crossers. Or perhaps immigrating waves of spirits have settled further and
further out from the dump; newcomer Uratha will have to
deal with the immigrants one layer at a time in order to
pacify the whole area.
Decaying organic material releases methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide and other toxic and flammable gases.
Local authorities may pipe the stacks in order to burn
those gases off; enterprising Uratha or others may prefer to
tap into such a fuel source themselves.

M ountain
Mountains are pinnacles of the local terrain a
proper mountain peak is more than 2,000 feet above sea
level. Mountains are rarely useful for agriculture. Their

23
steep sides prevent local humans from doing anything
useful on the surface, but humans dig into mountains to
extract their mineral wealth.
Creating: Geographic features of this magnitude cannot be created through the actions of mere Uratha.
Eliminating: See Creating. But, as some coal-mining companies have learned, destroying a mountaintop is
easier than mining by burrowing into the mountain itself.
Benefits (free-form): A mountain provides an almost
unassailable fortress for Uratha who need defense. A
mountain provides good visibility, and enemies have to
fight their way uphill to defenders (defenders can easily
gain the standard +1 dice pool for fighting from higher
ground as long as they avoid being outflanked). Earth elementals, spirits of wealth and spirits of raptors are drawn
to mountains; +2 dice to summon such things. Water
naturally flows away from mountains; 2 dice to summon
water elementals. Mountains often serve as home to great
mineral wealth and can provide materials for Artifact creation, adding 1 die to the pool for the Fetish Rite so long
as the fetish and spirit are of the appropriate resonance.
Merit:
Resonance: Earth, vision or perspective, defense
Problems and Hooks:
A rival pack learns that the necessary materials for
a particular fetish or ritual can only be found on or in this
mountain.
A national mining company buys the mountains
land and begins operations in the area, with the intention
of deep-mining the packs mountain (or of shearing the
mountains peak off and processing the tillings).

Ocean/Sea/Great L ake
This territory element really refers to the shallows near
the coast, as well as some lands immediately bordering the
sea. No werewolf pack would bother to claim all of a large
body of water as the packs territory the packmembers
couldnt possibly patrol the entire thing, and many large
bodies of water serve as home to powerful and alien spirits.
Werewolves stick to territory that suits them better.
Creating: Without serious tectonic activity, a pack
cannot create an oceanfront or major body of water. Some
exceptionally powerful packs (or spirits) may be able to
enact such things, but they are beyond the scope of this
supplement.
Eliminating: See Creating, except to note that erosion may change the local waterfront beyond recognition,
and characters can certainly use skill to speed that process.
Benefits (free-form): Once out of sight of land, the
Gauntlet in and above the ocean thins dramatically, usually imposing a modifier of +0 or even +1. The sea allows
a savvy pack to travel without alerting those on land a
pack may travel on the water to elude mortal authorities
or other packs, or to lay ambushes for unsuspecting foes. A
waterfront probably includes a beach, which can help an

exhausted werewolf recover from recent strain (+1 dice to

Meditation pools to recover Willpower).
Merit:
Resonance: Water
Problems and Hooks: Werewolves do not patrol the
deep sea; not even the wolf-spirits they claim descent
from range there. Certain factors make the Shadow of the
ocean particularly hostile and alien for air-breathers.
The spirits of the deepest trenches of the ocean
are huge, somnolent, very powerful creatures. The spirit
ecosystem of the deep orbits these mammoth aliens; lesser
spirits feed off the great ones Essence directly, and have
no reason to venture away from the deep trenches unless
the deepest spirits are themselves roused. These entities
are theoretically comparable to the idigam in terms of
power and majesty.
The spirit ecosystem of the deep ocean is itself
brutally competitive. While the spirit landscape of the
living world may be somewhat less dangerous than that
of the Hisil, the same laws of bloody tooth and claw rule
both realms. Few oceanic spirits reach the shore because
few spirits have reason to try, and those that try without
reason are annihilated by spirits that better understand
their place.
Other entities patrol the seas between the deepest
ocean trenches and the shoreline. The Uratha know little
of these entities, but surely they must exist.
In any given Storytellers chronicle, any of the three
above reasons may be true. Or none might be true. The
deep ocean of the World of Darkness is a terrifying and
alien place, far from the safety of land and sun. If the
three points described above are all true, the disruption of
any of the three of them could lead to extreme danger for
coastal Uratha.
Natural storms are a potential hook and danger,
particularly along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico and the
Atlantic coast of the southern United States. Hurricanes
have ravaged that area throughout history. In the World of
Darkness, some of these storms might well be augmented by
powerful spirits spirits that can be defeated or bargained
with, thereby dissipating or greatly reducing the power of
the storm. More often, these storms are purely natural.
There will surely be spirits along for the ride, but the storms
themselves must be withstood or escaped.

Mysterious Places
The Storyteller may wish to include some of
the strange and horrific places found in World
of Darkness: Mysterious Places. These locales
dont have an in-game benefit or Merit cost,
but suggestions for dealing with them from a
story perspective can be found in that book.
Most of the Mysterious Places in that book are
appropriate as part of a Werewolf: The Forsaken

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Chapter I: Drawing Borders

packs territory; Swamp Indian Hollow (where
a mysterious life energy is creating puppets
of vine and sinew) and the Whispering Wood
(which draws sinners to it and changes them
to better manifest their moral weakness)
may be the most appropriate, while the least
appropriate from this perspective are the Empty
Room (which isnt bound to a particular place)
and the Village Secret (the nature of the Village
and its caverns dont fit well with the activities
of a pack of werewolves).

Pond/L ake/L akefront

A pond, lake or lakefront is a standing body of water,
fed by streams, rivers and/or springs. No pack will have a
truly huge lake to itself (such as the freshwater seas that
are the American Great Lakes), but may claim a share of
lakefront and the lake out to a certain distance.
Creating: Ponds and lakes can be created by damming rivers (with many potential ramifications). Ponds
larger than about an acre are otherwise very difficult to
create without magical assistance and/or heavy equipment.
Eliminating: Ponds and lakes can be drained. This is
likely to enrage local water-spirits even if the Uratha
arent responsible for the destruction, they will have to
deal with the implications of it.
Benefits (free-form): +1 die to summon water- and
fish-spirits. +1 die to Survival rolls to find food (the characters can fish) unless the water is heavily polluted. As
with an ocean or other large body of water, characters can
travel quickly across a lakes surface, possibly surprising
enemies that didnt expect the characters to do so. Small
lakes and ponds freeze over in the winter, allowing anyone
to cross them without boats or swimming Uratha worried about ice breaking should stay in Urhan form as it is
the lightest.
Merit:
Resonance: Water
Problems and Hooks:
One particular lake may not be a lake at all
instead, it is a reservoir created by damming up a large
river. The process of that damming flooded an entire village. The villagers were given a chance to evacuate their
belongings but it may not have gone entirely smoothly.
Now the lake has begun to suffer a rash of unnatural
events. What was left behind when the flood came?
A powerful artifact rests in the hands of an equally
powerful spirit at the heart of the pond. The spirit has the
respect of its fellows and uses the pond as a sort of court
locally. The spirit is not willing to give the artifact up,
and is powerful enough that the pack cant simply destroy
the spirit. How do the werewolves reach dtente with the
spirit?

24

River/Riverside
A river is a navigable waterway a stream large
enough for boats to float down it.
Creating: Rivers cant be created without some sort
of noteworthy catastrophe going on. Only in the most
remote areas could such a thing even be attempted, and
even then it would require an enormous feat of magic and
the enslavement (and likely destruction) of at least 200 Essence rating worth of water-spirits. Such wanton enslavement and destruction of spirits would count as a Rank 8
Harmony sin.
Eliminating: Rivers can be destroyed more easily
than they can be created rivers across the western
United States and Mexico are being effectively destroyed
even today through poor planning and overuse. This sort
of industrial-scale river abuse is extremely difficult for a
pack of werewolves to attempt. However, this may prove to
be an excellent story hook, as the slow exsanguination of
the packs territory causes chaos in both the physical world
and the spirit world.
Benefits (free-form): Rivers provide rapid transit for
large and heavy goods, create huge and defensible natural
barriers between territories and attract spirits of all sorts
(spirits of commerce, most of the water choir and most of
the fish choir as well as spirits associated with those that
prey on those fish, and so on). Rivers provide a good platform for many other territory features whether tranquil
wilderness, heavy industry that relies on river barges for
transit or a riverfront shopping district. A bridge over the
river may provide a good neutral site for meetings between
the packs that control territory on opposite sides of the
river.
Merit:
Resonance: Water, travel
Problems and Hooks:
A river is a great place to dump a body. The body of
a well-known local human floats downriver and into the
packs territory, or the body of the leader of a local Uratha
pack floats downriver and he shows signs that he was
killed by werewolves teeth and claws, and attacked from
behind.
A riverboat casino that passes through the characters territory regularly plays host to all sorts of unsavory entities that might prey on elderly and/or desperate
humans who frequent the casino.
Spirit refugees flee a catastrophe downriver, such
as a toxic spill. The pack downriver should have known
the spill was coming; their negligence has driven these
terrified and rampaging spirits into your packs territory.
Now you must deal with those spirits as well as the (lazy?
negligent?) neighboring pack.

Spring
Springs have great mythical power: they represent
spontaneous creation, the eruption of life from sterility.

25
Creating: Springs usually occur naturally; a pack
might bring one into existence by digging down to a highpressure point in the local water table (an Intelligence
+ Science roll would help a werewolf find a good site for
such a thing). Mystically skilled werewolves may be able to
lure and bind water-spirits to an area with the appropriate
rituals.
Eliminating: Without outright destroying a spring,
werewolves or their enemies might choose to pollute it by
contaminating the local water table. This might generate polluted or corrupt spirits, poison the local spirits or
destroy them entirely.
Benefits (free-form): Most springs provide a nearly
limitless supply of clean water. Springs are inherently creative entities; a well-maintained spring provides a +1 dice
pool modifier to Summoning rituals performed there and
a +2 (total) modifier to rituals performed to summon water
elementals there. The Gauntlet of a spring at its source is
often quite low, typically allowing a +0 dice pool modifier.
Merit:
Resonance: Creation, water
Problems and Hooks: The spring manifests a locus,
and its creation resonance causes a number of spirits to
congregate around the spring. This unusual state of affairs
begins to clutter and then even pollute the material-world
waterway; the pack must either change the resonance,
eliminate the spring or otherwise deal with the cascade of
problems.

S tream
A stream is a small stretch of running water, usually
wet year-round. It is shallow enough to wade through and
rarely more than a few yards across.
Creating: A stream may come from a spring (see
above) or may just represent natural water runoff in the
area. Construction equipment might be used to dig a
ravine to accumulate water runoff. An earth-spirit might
be convinced to move things around to allow a stream
through a given area, but anyone trying to persuade an
earth-spirit of such a thing will be at 3 or more dice on
her Social pools to do so, given earths natural suspicion of
waters erosive qualities.
Eliminating: As with creating, construction equipment or earth-spirits can be harnessed to eliminate or
move a stream. When water falls, it has to go somewhere,
so it is easier to move a stream than destroy it entirely.
Benefits (free-form): Streams are calming and peaceful; Uratha who meditate near a stream receive +2 dice
to their Composure + Wits rolls while doing so. Tracking
prey across a stream is more difficult; trackers receive a
2 die penalty to Survival or Perception rolls to follow a
target that has crossed a stream. A stream may, at periods
of high water, provide +1 die to summon water-spirits.
Merit:
Resonance: Water, peace

Problems and Hooks: Construction or irrigation

upstream dry up the creek. Water-spirits become enraged,
and the peaceful nature of the stream evaporates.

Swamp/M arsh /We tland

A marsh is an area with an unusually large ability to
retain water. This makes the land very fertile, and allows
it to support many animal species not seen elsewhere.
Additionally, wetlands tend to serve as a buffer for excess
water. In times of drought, wetlands keep the water table
high, while in times of heavy rain, wetlands absorb water
that might otherwise cause damage.
Creating: From a spiritual perspective, a wetland can
best be created by repeatedly summoning water-spirits and
otherwise pouring water-aspected Essence into dry land.
Artificial wetlands can be created through physical means
as well. The construction necessary to do this requires
an Intelligence + Science roll and one months labor by a
typical pack.
Eliminating: The easiest way to eliminate a wetland is to drain and pave it. This isnt trivial, and usually
requires Resources or more worth of investment.
The loss of wetlands can cause massive erosion problems
for nearby areas, as wetlands tend to act as a sponge for
heavy rainfall without a wetland, runoff can carve a
simple creek into a steep ravine in just a year or so, and
wash away acres of topsoil at a time. Coastal wetlands also
blunt the impact of tropical storms on inhabited areas.
Uratha may wish to use this to impoverish downstream
rivals or drive humans from the area.
Benefits (free-form): Spirits are especially easy to
banish or imprison within a wetland, as the tendency of
such a place is to take Essence (and creatures composed of
Essence) and bury it away for a long time. +2 dice on attempts to banish or bind spirits when within a swamp. +1
die to summon water elementals and spirits of the serpent
choir. Marshes often contain rare plants and animals; +1
die to Survival rolls related to herbalism or Craft rolls
related to creating a fetish.
Merit:
Resonance: Water, fertility, mystery, the hidden or
unknown
Problems and Hooks:
Things that would otherwise remain hidden for a
long time lurk in a swamp. A spirit that previous inhabitants bound becomes unbound through the activities of
Uratha (and isnt happy about its long imprisonment).
A serial killer uses the swamp as his base of operations. The police cannot easily search the swamp for him,
but the pack can (the packs motivation to do so is up to
the Storyteller and players). The killer compulsively collects silver jewelry from his victims, and is covered in the
stuff. This makes him more dangerous to the Uratha than
he might otherwise realize.

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Chapter I: Drawing Borders

Woods/Forest
This feature refers to wild forest, rather than tree
farms (tree farms are more like farms, above). A wild
forest doesnt necessarily have to be an old-growth forest;
any large patch of woods that has been left to grow under
its own auspices for many years can qualify.
Creating: Without the assistance of spirits of wood
and fertility, it takes at least three years for even a moderate semblance of woods to arise where trees have been
planted. Doing that requires no real skill. This process
might be sped up with a Science roll; otherwise, werewolves who need forest must invoke spirits of the forest.
Eliminating: Surprisingly, fire wont reliably destroy
a naturally grown forest. Tree species native to dry areas
frequently expect fires to occur and are adapted to them;
most forests actually benefit from infrequent forest fires.
In wet areas, of course, fires are less likely to spread and
do wide damage to forests. The greatest danger to forests
in the modern world is clear-cut forestry and real-estate
redevelopment.

26

Benefits (free-form): +2 dice to summon spirits of

trees, wood, earth elementals, spirits associated with any
bird choir or with any animal choir that lives in the forest.
+2 dice on Survival rolls to hunt; +1 dice on Stealth and
Athletics rolls to move around in familiar forests. Deep
forest has a thin Gauntlet; +0 dice pool penalty to step
sideways in a deep forest. Spirits of the wind and of fire
are harder to summon in a forest suffer a 2 dice pool
penalty to summon either of those kinds of spirits. Within
reason, Uratha can harvest wood for small construction
projects or fires without bothering with Resources rolls.
Merit:
Resonance: Forest, wood, age or wisdom
Problems and Hooks: As with fallow prairie (above),
woods wont last long in the face of concerted human
attempts to expand into them. It typically takes Resources
or exceptional bureaucratic delaying tactics (typically involving Contacts and Politics rolls) to prevent such
rezoning and expansion.
Forest is also very attractive to human logging and
lumber companies. Some may wish to simply clear, sell

27
and move on, while others might engage in silviculture
(forest agriculture). Forestry that consists primarily of
clear-cutting causes problems in the spirit world, as spirits
of a slaughtered forest may be killed themselves, or go insane with the destruction of their physical-world anchor.
Silviculture has the same general effect on the spirit world
that farming has on otherwise virgin land an increase
in the local Gauntlet and a tendency to attract spirits of
labor and enslavement.

Urban/Suburban

Not every feature listed below is restricted to the

big city. Most of them can occur in more rural areas.
They are more commonly found in or around population
centers. Note that the werewolves dont have to legally
own some specific features (such as a bar or club) to benefit
from them, though some features may have to be claimed
as theirs informally.

A part ment Building

This aspect may refer to housing projects of the sort
that have yet to fall out of favor in the World of Darkness.
It might refer to ordinary working-class apartment buildings, or to wealthy high-rise slivers in a citys rich core.
Creating: Building an apartment building is typically a Resources or greater task requiring dozens of
workers and heavy machinery. Converting an abandoned
building into squatter housing, by contrast, is just a matter
of moving in and locking the door.
Eliminating: See sidebar, Destroying a Building.
Benefits (free-form): Werewolves with an apartment building in their territory can more easily find a
place to live; characters can live in apartments as though
their Resources Merit was one dot higher if they live in
an apartment in their territory. The pack can extend this
benefit to family and friends if packmembers wish, but no
more than one family per packmember. If the apartment
building has the Poor descriptor, characters cannot
receive more than Resources level housing.
Merit:
Resonance: Safety, home, insects (hives)
Problems and Hooks: Hooks in an apartment building primarily stem from the residents of the building. The
Storyteller and players should work together to determine
what kind of people live in this building is it across the
street from a hospital, housing plenty of young medical
students and nurses? Or near a college campus?

Destroying

Building

There are a few ways to destroy a building in

a hurry. None of them is exactly safe. The World
of Darkness Rulebook contains rules for damaging objects and vehicles on pp. 1 35 1 3 8; the Storyteller should consult those rules before reading

on. The core rules do not contain references for

Size, Structure and Damage for objects as large as
buildings. Sample Size and Structure ratings are
listed below.
Rules for explosives are on pp. 178179 of
the World of Darkness Rulebook, but to summarize: players must succeed in an Intelligence +
Science roll to place explosives correctly (Demolitions or Construction Specialties apply). Buildings
larger than house-sized apply difficulty penalties
to this roll: 1 f or a large house, up to 5 f or
a skyscraper. The damage from the explosives
is applied to the building after subtracting its
Durability.
As a very general rule, a collapsing building
deals a number of damage dice equal to half its
Size to all within the building and within 1 0 yards,
half that many dice to those within 20 yards, half
that again to those within 40 yards and so on.
Buildings designed to collapse inward do their
Size in damage to those trapped inside but half
as much damage as described above to those
outside.
Example: Bob is trapped inside a collapsing
house. He takes 20 dice of Damage. His friend
Tim is 35 yards from that house; he takes 5 dice.
If the house were designed to collapse inward,
Bob would take 40 dice Damage, but Tim would
take just 2 dice from flying debris.
Ordinary House or Shop: Durability 2, Size
40, Structure 42
Small Apartment Building, Large Restaurant
or Store: Durability 3 , Size 60, Structure 63
Factory, Big Box Store, Office or Large
Apartment Building: Durability 3 , Size 80, Structure 83
Skyscraper, Shopping Mall or Stadium:
Durability 5 o r more, Size 1 00 or more,
Structure 1 05 o r more

Big Box S tore

These stores are large hardware or electronics and
technology stores. They are typically stand-alone buildings
and occupy thousands of square feet of suburbia.
Creating: Only the rarest werewolf has the Resources
and Status necessary to open a chain store in her territory.
Eliminating: See the Destroying a Building sidebar.
Driving one of these stores out of business through crime
and violence is probably easier than blowing the building
sky-high.
Benefits (free-form): If the pack has a big box hardware or electronics store in its territory, the pack can outfit
itself for unusual occurrences in a hurry. A pack with a big
box store in its territory never suffers the dice pool penalty
for having the wrong tools for the job as long as a packmember has 10 minutes to spare. Even if the pack doesnt
Urban/Suburban

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

have 10 minutes to spare, the packmember with the highest Resources score can roll his Resources. If he succeeds,
the pack has the necessary tools lying around.
Merit:
Resonance: Greed, commerce, technology
Problems and Hooks: Werewolves who regularly
pilfer the inventory of big box stores may find themselves
wanted, caught on video or even pursued by the police.
Theft doesnt cause the spiritual complications tied to
Harmony, but can cause complications for a pack that
wishes to go about its business unmolested.

Club

or

Bar

A bar or nightclub is a location serving alcohol and

playing live or canned music. Some bars serve a full menu
of food; others have nothing more than bar snacks, or no
food at all. Most jurisdictions keep children under the
legal drinking age (21 in the United States, 19 in Canada)
from entering bars at all.
Creating: A corner bar is easy to open. Financially, it
represents a few months worth of Resources invest-

28

ment. Bureaucratically, opening a corner bar requires a few

months worth of weekly rolls to accumulate 15 successes
to get the proper permits.
Eliminating: See Destroying a Building, above. In
many jurisdictions, enough violence in the area around
a club can get it shut down as a nuisance bar. Avoiding
that fate requires regular Resources bribes and/or good
Politics and Bureaucracy rolls.
Benefits (free-form): Packmembers who succeed in a
Socialize roll can treat any bar in their territory as though
they had the Barfly Merit (they can enter the bar without
difficulty, regardless of the sort of establishment it might
be). Clubs are excellent places to meet Contacts subtract
1 experience point from the cost of buying or raising the
Contacts Merit. Drunken patrons are easily seduced; werewolves receive +1 die to seduction attempts while in a bar.
Merit:
Resonance: Passion, intoxication, music, lust
Problems and Hooks:
Predatory spirits of lust haunt a local bar, looking to
Ride or Urge young people in the area.

29
Drug dealing or other criminal activity happens
quite openly at a particular tavern. The pack may have no
moral objection to this activity, but it does attract gang
activity and, later, the police.

Factory
A factory feature represents a manufacturing facility
of some kind. It may make ordinary widgets, cars, specialty
equipment, chemicals or just about anything else. Generally speaking, the larger the factorys output, the larger the
facility must be (many automakers facilities fill dozens of
acres). Factories employ dozens or hundreds of people.
Creating: As with many of the features in this section, a pack of Uratha cannot create a factory so much as
try to attract one to its territory, or reinvigorate one that
has fallen on hard times.
Eliminating: See Destroying a Building, above.
Benefits (free-form): Uratha can easily get jobs
at factories in their area, allowing them to raise their
Resources Merit at 1 experience point per dot (to a cap of
Resources ). Enterprising werewolves may turn manufacturing facilities to their own ends, using welding robots
as weapons against powerful enemies or using a press to
destroy a homicidal robot from the future. Factories may
even have some extremely dangerous facilities high temperature furnaces, extreme cold or dangerous chemicals in
abundance. Simple Science rolls can allow Uratha to take
advantage of these things in dire situations.
Merit:
Resonance: Mechanization, creation, labor
Problems and Hooks:
Soul-deadening, repetitive, robot-driven work
begins to scour much of the Essence from the Shadow
around a factory; the packs ritualists realize that a Barren
may soon erupt if something isnt done.

H ouses/H ousing
Humans own houses all over the world. Certain
territories might contain no houses at all downtown
commercial districts, for instance, or deep wilderness. This
aspect generally refers to tracts of housing, be they suburban neighborhoods, city enclaves or housing developments; not every territory with a house within its borders
would qualify as having housing as a feature.
Creating: A house requires several months investment of Resources or more, to represent the labor of
a house-building crew. A tract of homes costs more but is
typically built by a developer as an investment.
Eliminating: See Destroying a Building, above.
Benefits (free-form): Uratha who outright own or
inherit a house receive + to their Resources Merit (to
a maximum of and note that it isnt so much
that getting a house makes the character richer, as that
if the character owns a house free and clear, many of
the other necessities of life become easier to attain and
manage). They also have relatively safe and protected

places in which to perform rituals, hack international

computer networks, change shape as they wish and so on.
Uratha with a tract of housing in their territory but which
they dont own outright receive a +1 dice pool bonus to
summon conceptuals, as so much human emotion is in
residence rather than simply passing through.
Merit:
Resonance: Safety, home
Problems and Hooks:
A housing development may be more trouble than
it is worth; when a pack has a consistent set of neighbors
who expect to see them mowing the lawn, sending children off to school and so on, the packmembers will have
trouble concealing that they are strange and may even
inadvertently trigger the Lunacy in neighbors during times
of stress.
As endless television dramas suggest, suburbia is
a more complex place than its surface suggests. Some of
the most clichd movie of the week stories have new
resonance in an animistic world. The alcoholic, the wifebeater and the teenage drug addict all push resonance into
the spirit world and the pack must deal with the impact
of that resonance, whatever form it takes.

M all/S trip M all

A mall is a collection of stores and restaurants all
sharing a common structure. They may all be indoors,
under a common roof or they may just be one long building subdivided into individual shops, with a large common
parking lot. A strip mall may be as small as just four shops;
the largest indoor shopping malls have more than 100
stores, and even contain small amusement parks inside.
Creating: Malls are large and expensive; as with
many of the other features in this section, an investment
of Resources or more, plus difficult rolls in Politics,
Bureaucracy and Finance are necessary to build one.
Eliminating: See Destroying a Building, above.
Benefits (free-form): A mall has a thick Gauntlet
(typically 3 dice or more to step sideways). The main reason malls are useful to Uratha are that malls provide a way
to rapidly gear up when action is called for. Characters
with a mall in their territory can purchase or steal equipment more conveniently and quickly than they might otherwise. A pack that is familiar with its local mall can take
advantage of back hallways and loading docks to sneak
around and ambush enemies found there in appropriate
circumstances, the Storyteller may allow a Stealth bonus
while the pack is inside a mall in its territory.
Merit:
Resonance: Greed, commerce, ennui
Problems and Hooks: Malls are frequently hollow and
bereft of spirituality. Most spirits avoid them entirely; only
spirits of money and occasional spirits of desire are likely to
be found there. The main reason for the absence of spirits
in a mall is the high Gauntlet. Malls just about anywhere
Urban/Suburban

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

are considered to have a dense urban area Gauntlet, providing a 3 dice pool modifier to step sideways (see Werewolf: The Forsaken, p. 250, for details). This barrier can
prove useful to Uratha in some circumstances.

M useum /Library
These buildings are local centers of knowledge and
learning.
Creating: A pack may have a library of its own if it
owns a house or other building in which the pack can
house the library. Thousands of books, scrolls and other
writings are needed to truly represent the kind of library
that Uratha need.
Eliminating: See Destroying a Building, above.
Benefits (free-form): Museums sometimes contain
artifacts that are dormant fetishes (or that can easily be
transformed into fetishes by Uratha ritualists). +2 dice to
rolls to fabricate fetishes. Libraries allow Uratha to perform
mundane research more easily, and even arcane research
is easier with a real library to fall back on; free access to
a library gives +2 dice to Research rolls, per p. 55 of the
World of Darkness Rulebook and unfettered access to
the librarys closed stacks may give as much as one additional die to that roll. Artificials of the information choir
(other than radios and televisions) are more easily summoned in a library or museum +1 dice to summon such
spirits. At the Storytellers discretion, an Uratha ritualist
can receive +1 die to summon a conceptual by sacrificing a
large amount of material written about its core concept. As
libraries and museums are both often full of people, Uratha
ritualists who intend to perform summonings at such a
place must choose their times and places carefully.
Merit:
Resonance: Learning, silence
Problems and Hooks: Museums and libraries often
draw the attention of humans who have some suspicions
of the unseen world and seek to learn more. The werewolves may have to figure out a way to scare the humans
away from unsafe knowledge without instead invoking the
mortals curiosity.

O ffice Building/Skyscraper
Small office buildings may be just one story, or they
may be office park type buildings with up to five stories.
Larger buildings than that are rarely found outside of
downtown commercial districts but, in even a medium-sized city, those buildings can reach 30 stories or
more. Small office buildings may house just one companys
operations; large buildings can house dozens or hundreds
of companies.
Creating: Office buildings typically require an investment of at least Resources and good Finance and
Bureaucracy rolls. Skyscrapers require even more resources
amounts in the tens of millions of dollars or more.
Eliminating: See Destroying a Building, above. If a
resident business is put out of operations with its build-

30

ing left intact, a new one will come along eventually to

replace it.
Benefits (free-form): Characters whose territory
includes one or more major office buildings receive +1 die
on Finance rolls as they survey local business conditions
before making investments or withdrawals. Although
many Uratha are ill-suited to office work, those with high
Willpower scores (7 or higher) can receive a 1 experience
point cost break on the Resources Merit, as they take day
jobs in office buildings. The roofs of skyscrapers and tall
office buildings are excellent places to summon spirits of
the sky, storm or avian spirits; +2 dice to do so. However,
truly wild spirits are loath to approach such towers; 2 dice
to summon spirits of the deep wild.
Merit:
Resonance: Labor, greed, wind (in the case of skyscrapers)
Problems and Hooks:
Really large skyscrapers may be contested by two or
more packs of Uratha (imagine running battles through
nighttime offices and firefights up and down elevator shafts).
As the local business climate gets worse and repeated layoffs occur, the level of despair in the headquarters of
a major local business reaches truly epic levels. A rash of
suicides among desperate employees opens a Wound in the
spirit world around the office park.

Park
A park is a pretty broad designation, as it could in
theory refer to a national park like Yellowstone just as
easily as the playground on the corner. A large national
or state park is better represented by a number of rural
features (above); this feature refers to a park that can be
thought of as a single entity. A park is a natural recreation
area and may include hiking trails, picnic areas and playground equipment.
Creating: Small parks can be created by the simple
expedient of buying a plot of land (Resources or more),
clearing it and declaring it a park (which may require a
permit best gotten with Politics or Bureaucracy rolls).
Eliminating: Buy the park and build something on
it, or destroy or pollute whatever structures are already
present there.
Benefits (free-form): Parks provide a window into
nature even within large cities; in parts of New Yorks
Central Park it is possible to briefly forget that one is
inside a huge metroplex. This gives Uratha a +2 dice to
Meditation rolls to regain Willpower. Large parks provide
good spots to meet or perform rituals out of sight of local
humans or police; they can even provide good hunting for
Urhan-form werewolves (+1 die to Survival rolls to find
food). Laying an ambush is easier in a large park, as well;
characters receive +1 die to Stealth rolls within a park in
their own territory. The Gauntlet in a large park is typically one point less intense than in the surrounding area.
Merit:

31
Resonance: Peace, wilderness, youth
Problems and Hooks:
Local college students begin using the park as a
shortcut between their classes and nearby cheap housing.
However, gangs begin preying on those students as they
cross through the deepest woods in the park, mugging
them or worse.
An infestation of wilderness-spirits in the park exercise their powers to spread vegetation and wild animals
outside of the parks boundaries.

School
Schooling varies throughout the world; in the United
States, students remain in school until graduation at age
18. A school may either be open for free to the general
public or a private school requiring tuition payments.
Creating: Schools are generally only built in response
to population pressure; causing a new school to be built is
therefore a complex political proposition.
Eliminating: See Destroying a Building, above.
Benefits (free-form): School libraries may have useful
information; characters can consult them for research
as necessary (though adult characters would have to do
so after hours). 1 experience point to purchase teachers
or teenage Contacts or Allies if a high school is in the
characters territory. School-aged Uratha can purchase
Knowledge Skills or Athletics at 1 experience point cost
if they are students at a school in their territory. A high
school probably also includes a small sports stadium (see
below). Uratha may be able to harvest some of that emotional energy as Essence.
Merit:
Resonance: Learning, wisdom, youth, conformity,
tension
Problems and Hooks:
Several Uratha cubs who are classmates at a local
school all go through the First Change in rapid succession.
A locus in the school seems to be the catalyst for this; did
some unknown spiritual force draw all members of the
pack to the school prior to their First Change? And if so,
to what end?
A member of the pack has a school-aged child with
strong wolf blood. The stresses of school life have begun to
wear on this child, who has inherited some of his parents
near-supernatural temper. The werewolf must help his
child adjust to ordinary human society.
A local religious school has the best educational
reputation of any school in the area. A packmembers
mate enrolls their child at that school regardless of the
werewolfs wishes. The character must deal with his childs
possible indoctrination into a belief system at odds with
his own.

S hop

or

Restaurant

This feature can represent any kind of small shop

from a small restaurant or coffee shop to a pet store

or clothing store. A shop might sit as part of a shopping

center, or may be part of a downtown shopping district in
a small town or large city.
Creating: Find or be an entrepreneur. Unlike
some of the larger establishments described in this section,
a small craft store or restaurant can be opened with a
Resources investment.
Eliminating: See Destroying a Building, above.
Small shop owners typically survive on very small margins, as well; it doesnt take much of a loss of business to
close their doors forever.
Benefits (free-form): It is entirely plausible for a pack
of Uratha to run a small shop within the packs territory;
a shop can make a good center of activity for a pack, and
provide a small income (Resources for packmembers)
as well. If the pack doesnt run the shop itself, packmembers may take advantage of its offerings, use the shop as a
center of operations or just patrol to keep the place clean
and safe.
Merit: if the pack owns and runs the shop; no cost
otherwise.
Resonance: Greed, commerce, community
Problems and Hooks:
If the pack runs a small local shop, perhaps competition enters town. This may be another small local shop,
or may be a national big box store. Uratha who wish to
run their business as a business will need to make Academics (using Bureaucracy and Finance as applicable Specialties) and Politics rolls to keep their customers happy;
those who wish only for a convenient center of operations
may need to bolster their Resources in other ways, as their
center of operations becomes a drain on their finances
rather than a profit center.
A favored local shop is robbed one night. The police seem uninterested in investigating the crime, but the
proprietor suggests that he cannot remain in business if he
is hit again. The criminals could be anyone; the pack must
get involved or lose a local institution.

S tadium

or Arena
A small local baseball stadium may hold just 1,500
people. The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California, holds
almost 100,000. People throng to these facilities to cheer
for sports teams or watch concerts.
Creating: Use the Status Background and Politics
Skill to attract a sports team to the local area. Influential
allies and contacts will likely have to be dragged into such
an effort as well. Most Uratha will be somewhat suspicious. All in all, the construction of such a thing costs in
the tens of millions of dollars and will never be undertaken lightly.
Eliminating: See Destroying a Building, above.
Stadiums are sometimes demolished in favor of newer and
more modern facilities. A team that does badly enough
for long enough, or becomes unpopular with local fans for
whatever reason, may leave town, which wont eliminate

Urban/Suburban

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

the stadium but will eliminate the benefits from it (see
below).
Benefits (free-form): Though many Uratha scoff at
humans obsession with sports, the fact is that an enormous amount of emotional energy is focused through
sports teams. Even if the game only lasts two or three
hours, the undivided attention of 60,000 people can have
a hell of an effect. Appropriately resonant Essence will
almost certainly be harvested by savvy spirits (particularly
emotionals and reactionaries) in the hours right after a
game, and crafty werewolves can take advantage of those
spirits after the spirits have had their fill. If a locus is in
the immediate vicinity, its resonance will surely match the
emotional output of those fans.
Additionally, as thousands of humans pass through
an area, it is easy to pick pockets, beg for loose change or
otherwise earn a dishonest living from them. Packmembers receive +2 dice to Larceny or Subterfuge rolls to take
advantage of fans on the way to or from a game.
Merit:
Resonance: Passion, greed, victory, loyalty, aggression
Problems and Hooks:
The local stadium is set to be demolished in favor
of a more modern and sexier one built largely at taxpayer
expense. Word gets around that the local organized crime
organization intends to dispose of a few skeletons in its
closet through the stadiums destruction. The pack might
want to do the same or catch the mob red-handed.
A conceptual-spirit of the emotional choir sets itself
up as the patron spirit of the local sports team, taking
on the appearance and qualities of the teams mascot. The
spirit doesnt have any dire plans; it doesnt intend to suck
the life from sports fans or anything like that. It enjoys
sport and competition, and it harvests a small amount
of Essence from humans emotional outbursts during the
game. Does the pack interfere with this activity? What if
the spirit starts to interfere with games, as it realizes that
it pulls more Essence from a tight, emotional game than
from a blowout?

R aw Essence
Spirits, Uratha and others attuned to magical
energies may harvest Essence directly from massive outpourings of emotion from humans. The
emotion must be similar for most or all humans in
the area, and must be intense. Generally speaking,
a great well of emotion from a human crowd acts
as a temporary locus of sorts. Essence comes
into being in its rawest state, ready to be harvested by any spirits, werewolves or other entities
quick enough to catch it. Spirits may even be able
to cross the Gauntlet at the climax of the event
an angel manifesting before a crowd desperate to believe, or a spirit slipping into the material
world to Ride an angry young rioter. Werewolves

32

suffer a 3 penalty to die rolls made to harvest the

Essence, as the timing is more challenging than
drawing off Essence from a fixed locus.
The event will generate roughly two Essence
per dot of the events intensity, which can be
harvested in the usual fashion. The Storyteller
is the final arbiter of any events intensity; the
following are merely guidelines. Note that the intensity of the event can be diluted or heightened
by context. A snake-handling church in a region
with many other such churches is less likely to
generate Essence than one that operates in an
area where such practices of faith are considerably rarer and more alarming. Note that certain
events may trigger multiple such temporary
loci; a city that breaks out in riots will probably
have several separate riot events throughout
the area, and a public assassination captured on
television may spawn minor loci from people
watching in large groups.

Particularly moving speech or
theatrical performance; violent car accident on a
freeway

Major tent revival or other religious
practice; dramatic moment during a sports game
(last-minute, game-winning goal, for instance)

Particularly damaging fire; act of
random violence in a public place

Riot; public assassination
Catastrophe or act of major violence; widespread panic or fury
The Essence resonates with the emotions
going on in the crowd (a riots Essence is violent;
a sports teams fans Essence is exultant or
despairing).

Theater/O pera H ouse

Theaters show plays, musical theater, opera, symphonic concerts and even rock shows. Theaters typically
seat from 100 to 2,000 patrons.
Creating: Small community theaters are not terribly
difficult to organize, though finding a permanent place for
them to perform can be hard. Success on a Politics roll can
bring together a community theater; good Resources and/or
Status are necessary to find a permanent place to perform.
Eliminating: See Destroying a Building, above.
A theater company or symphony can be driven out of
business relatively easily; these organizations operate on
razor-thin margins, and one financial disaster (dramatic
failure on a Finance roll, or an especially bad show) can
spell doom.
Benefits (free-form): Art can be inspirational; audiences at a theater generate Essence just as those at a sports
stadium (above) do. However, theater is more predictable.
After a werewolf has seen a given performance once, she

33
knows where the emotional high and low points of the
show are, and can harvest Essence at a 1 penalty rather
than the standard 3.
Merit:
Resonance: Passion, ambition, tragedy, laughter
Problems and Hooks: Theaters can draw an interesting crowd of performers and patrons, including potential
supernatural entities.

General Feat ures

These territory elements can exist almost

anywhere, whether urban or rural.

Ceme tery
A cemetery is an area
where the dead are buried.
This may be a traditional
graveyard, with rows of headstones side by side every
eight feet, or it could be
unusual such as the
crypts of New Orleans.
Cemeteries are often,
though not always, associated with churches. Certainly, vandalism in a cemetery
will have the local religious
population up in arms.
Creating: Find a big
plot of land (Resources
); get the appropriate
permits and clearances (Politics and/or Bureaucracy).
Eliminating: Cemeteries
are expensive to eliminate;
hundreds of underground
caskets must be excavated and
moved to a new location before
any development can be done.
Benefits (free-form): Ghosts are easy to find in a
cemetery: 1 experience point cost benefit to purchase a
ghostly Contact or Mentor. Certain rituals require parts of
dead bodies; the cemetery is the only place that they can
be found. Humans are naturally unnerved by the ominous
presence of death in a cemetery; any sensible human must
make a simple Willpower roll to enter a cemetery in the
packs territory at night.
Merit:
Resonance: Death, mourning, history
Problems and Hooks:
The 200-year-old cemetery is located on a bluff adjacent to a lake; erosion has begun to eat away at certain
graves, revealing tombs and possibly upsetting the dead.
An unethical corporation releases a chemical that
causes the dead to begin clawing their way to the surface,
hungry for human flesh.

Death-obsessed vampires are especially fond of

cemeteries; one or more local vampires may make their
homes in one the cemeterys crypts.

C hurch
A church might well be an old granite-and-stainedglass Catholic cathedral, a converted-storefront evangelical Protestant church, a Jewish synagogue or Muslim
mosque. Rare indeed in the World of Darkness is the simple, quiet Protestant
church. A church in a packs territory has
stature and meaning.
A church gives human spiritual
life a physical center and often provides meaning to mortals
in the area. A church
may also provide services
for the poor or disenfranchised. The flow of
Essence in the area is
disrupted by the churchs
presence: either the faith
of the church draws the
Essence in, or the church
diverts or reflects the Essence in some way. This
could have many effects
(see below).
Creating: Depending on the scale of the
church involved, creating a new church can
be as simple as renting a
building and beginning to
hold services. The founder
may have to be ordained,
depending on the faith.
Eliminating: Many
mortal institutions are vulnerable to simple destructive
methods: fires or other instances of massive property damage. Churches of the truly faithful are resistant to that sort
of thing. Knock down a church and its members will take
up a collection to rebuild. The best way to eliminate a
church is to eliminate its spiritual leadership, optimally in
such a way that the leadership isnt martyred.
Benefits (free-form): 1 experience point cost to
buy the appropriate kind of religious Contacts. +1 die
on Academics pools to research information about the
religion in question. Some ghosts and spirits cannot enter
holy ground. Most incorporeal entities can be persuaded
to avoid churches +1 die to pools to perform Warding
type rituals against non-humans.
Merit:
Resonance: Faith, belonging or home, passion, music,
fervor
General Features

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

Problems and Hooks: Religion is often closely tied
with the supernatural in folklore, from the old chestnut
of religious vampire hunters to various superstitions about
church bells driving off the fey, and the World of Darkness may see more connections. Emotional congregations
can create a great deal of Essence, attracting spirits. Some
supernatural entities may aspire to become or replace the
head of a church in order to have access to the congregations loyalty, for whatever purpose.

Criminal District
This feature represents a part of a packs territory that
is well-known as being a haven for criminals and criminal
activity. This district may be an entire neighborhood, a
single block or alley, a housing complex or anything else
the players and Storyteller find appropriate.
Creating: Crime tends to breed crime, and crime and
poverty tend to feed off one another. A pack that wishes to
create a criminal district within the packs territory can do
so relatively easily by initiating criminal activity of its own
dealing drugs, performing burglary and vandalism and so
on. Over time, this may drive the good, hardworking folk
away, leaving only those who are comfortable with a criminal area or those too desperate or set in their ways to leave.
Eliminating: A law and order campaign by local
police, or even by a sufficiently motivated pack of Uratha
acting as vigilantes, can eliminate the worst crime in such
a district. However, without significant investment, such a
district may well be transformed from a poor-and-dangerous neighborhood into a poor neighborhood. And, given
that poverty and crime tend to encourage one another,
the pack will have to work hard to keep the area clean.
Benefits (free-form): A criminal district provides
a 1 experience point benefit to purchasing criminal
Contacts and Allies. This district also gives +1 to all local
Larceny dice pools. It is far easier to find illicit or illegal
equipment for sale in a criminal district drugs, weapons
and stolen goods can all be found. A character willing to
purchase stolen goods can do so as though those goods
cost less than they ordinarily did (although nothing can
be had for no dots). The area also tends to attract spirits
associated with criminal activity.
Merit:
Resonance: Desperation, poverty, greed, opportunity,
violence
Problems and Hooks: Nearly any plotline from a police show or movie of choice can take place in a criminal
district. These can be drawn away from pure clich by the
context of dark animism. The obsessive detective may in
fact be Urged; the beat cop who gets off on abusing petty
criminals attracts the attention of a spirit of the reactionary descant, and so on.

E mpt y Building
Empty warehouses, sports arenas, shopping malls and
the like all arise after the businesses that previously occupied the buildings vanish.

34

Creating: Take nearly any of the buildings listed

above, and drive the business away without destroying the
building.
Eliminating: Destroy the building (see Destroying
a Building, above) or use Politics and Status to attract a
new business to the site.
Benefits (free-form): Empty buildings make decent homes or secret hideouts; they can also be useful as
temporary warehouses or meeting places for large groups
of people who dont want to be observed. Rituals that
dont require open sky or virgin land can be done without
interruption in large, open buildings. And they make okay
places to stash a body in a pinch.
Merit:
Resonance: Potential, despair
Problems and Hooks:
The city has suffered a large drop in population and
grown poorer in recent decades. Dozens of homes and businesses now stand empty, even in formerly good neighborhoods. Squatters and drug users infest these buildings. How
the pack chooses to deal with this is up to them.
The Stanhope Building on a busy and prosperous
corner in the city should, by all rights, be home to successful businesses. Three restaurants, two shops and a nightclub have all opened and closed in the building during the
last 18 months. It stands empty. Is this simply a function
of economics? Rumors persist of a string of old murders in
the building in the 1980s. Is something older and darker
going on?

H ighway
A highway is a high-speed road for motor vehicles
with few or no crossing roads. Highways can spell disaster
both for motorists and for wildlife, as road kill numbers
increase every autumn.
Creating: A decent investment of Resources and Status, combined with some means of influencing a member
of Congress, may get a highway paved through your community as part of the next federal transportation bill.
Eliminating: Highways are rarely shut down permanently; once they are put in place, budgetary allowances
are made to cover their continuing maintenance. Even
major interruptions of service such as earthquakes wont
shut down a major highway forever.
Benefits (free-form): A highway provides rapid
transit in and out of a territory. Most packs allow stretches
of highway to serve as neutral territory, so long as travelers
dont abuse the privilege. Spirits of cars and motorcycles
love highways, and haunt their way up and down empty
nighttime roads (+2 dice to summon spirits of cars or motorcycles or awaken the spirits within such devices while
on the highway). A werewolf receives +2 dice to her Drive
pool while driving on a stretch of highway in her own territory. Most animal-spirits with any sentience to speak of
know to avoid highways; 1 die to summon animal-spirits
there, and +1 die to banish animal spirits from a highway.

35
Merit:
Resonance: Travel, speed, death, fatigue
Problems and Hooks:
A pack of the Pure has begun to use the local
highways to move in and out of its inner-city territory. If
the Uratha can catch the Pure packmembers while on the
road, the Uratha may be able to do real damage to their
foes.
Beings unknown have taken up an ambush site on
a bluff high above a local highway, and attack passersby
including local werewolves. The pack must find the
attackers and bring them to whatever form of justice seems
most appropriate.

H ospital
A hospital feature is any major medical center containing facilities for scores of doctors and support personnel, as well as rooms for short-, medium- and long-term
recuperation. Some hospitals have helipads for use by
emergency medical helicopters; nearly all hospitals have
emergency rooms and facilities for ambulances.
Creating: A hospital is a mortal institution; most
hospitals in the World of Darkness are part of large medical
corporations. Influencing such a large organization would be
a long-term, complex effort. However, smaller medical centers could be opened up by influencing individual doctors;
a pack may choose to get involved in reopening a recentlyclosed hospital through raising funds or other means.
Eliminating: If a hospital is owned by a large medical
corporation, the easiest way to get the hospital shut down
is to increase the hospitals operating costs to the point
where the hospital is no longer a profitable arm of the
corporation. This can usually be accomplished through
violent and/or supernatural means. If the hospital is an
independent entity, or part of a charitable organization,
this will be much harder (see the sidebar on p. 18).
Benefits (free-form): Obviously, a hospital is handy
to have around when a werewolf (or associated mortal)
runs into a medical emergency. Characters who regularly
patrol a local hospital may find that spirits of healing are
easier to attract (+2 dice to Summoning) and may even be
willing to teach specialized healing Gifts and rites (allowing a 1 experience point cost break on such things). As
mentioned below, ghosts tend to cluster around hospitals;
those few ghosts that are both self-aware and benevolent
may prove to be useful Contacts or Allies in a hospital.
Should a supernatural problem take place, if the pack
takes care of it and makes it known to mortals in the hospital that the pack is responsible for solving that problem,
the characters may find useful mortal Contacts in the
hospital from then on (1 experience point cost to gain a
medical Contact).
Merit:
Resonance: Healing, disease, death, birth
Problems and Hooks: A hospital in a packs territory
requires regular attention. A Storyteller can look to the

preferred hospital medical drama of the year and rip story

ideas from it without much trouble.
So much pain, death, disease and madness occurs
in hospitals in the World of Darkness that even the ideal
hospital is constantly at risk of infestation by dangerous
spirits. A pack could expect to work almost as an exterminator in such a place, coming in on a regular basis to deal
with whatever semi-natural thing has taken up residence
since the last visit.
Similarly, so many humans die in hospitals that the
places are practically breeding grounds for ghosts. The
boundary between the living and the dead isnt exactly
part of werewolves usual responsibilities, but Uratha may
find that their territories are easier to manage if the most
dangerous ghosts are out of the way.
A hospital in the inner city may suffer from gangrelated crime (a rash of shootings, or theft of medical
supplies). A pack that wants to keep its territory safe could
easily get involved in protecting the hospital from this
mortal threat.

M ilitary Base
Military bases are large, complex entities. Their nature and contents depend on the arm of the military that
they are associated with (in the United States, that means
that a given base may be part of the Army, the Navy,
the Marine Corps, the Air Force or various arms of the
National Guard or Reserves). Almost every city has a National Guard presence of some kind, and most major cities
have one or more military bases; however, military bases
can also be found far from large cities. Navy bases are only
found on the coast of an ocean or the Great Lakes.
Bases may be built outside of a countrys territory; the
United States has military bases in dozens of countries,
either in support of ongoing military operations or as part
of longstanding treaties.
Creating: Military bases are expensive and complex
parts of a huge organization (the Department of Defense
or its equivalent). A single pack of Uratha probably lacks
the resources to induce such a base to be built in the
packs territory. A pack that wants a military base as part
of its territory will have to expand into such an area.
Eliminating: Active, combat-oriented bases are hard
to eliminate by violence, as they are full of soldiers with
guns and other fabulous military hardware. The military
might be induced to close a relatively minor base in an
era of cost control, by raising the cost of maintaining the
base. Uratha may work from within a country that has
been invaded, aiding locals in attacking a foreign base;
however, a powerful invading nation may simply reinforce
that base rather than eliminate or move it.
Benefits (free-form): Uratha on good terms with the
residents of a military base can acquire military Contacts
or Allies at a 1 experience point cost. A military Contact
or Ally may be able to provide Uratha with military
equipment if he is sufficiently induced to do so, but such a
General Features

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

theft, if discovered, may result in the Contact or Ally losing his position (and thereby his usefulness to the pack).
Military bases tend to be full of guns and other equipment
(bazookas, high explosives, jeeps, boats, tanks, helicopter
gunships, jet fighters, and so on, depending on the nature
of the base). The theft or hijacking of such equipment
wont go unnoticed, but in a serious emergency, a pack of
Uratha may not care. Spirits of violence and weaponry are
attracted to military bases; spirits of the sky frequent Air
Force and Air Force Reserve bases, to better frolic in the
chaotic winds created by supersonic jet traffic.
Merit:
Resonance: Violence, defense
Problems and Hooks:
Eagle-spirits resent humans violation of the birds
domain above an Air Force base, and either cause a crash
or threaten to do so if the local Uratha cant keep the
monkeys down where they belong. Or perhaps sky-spirits
resent the unnatural way that supersonic flight disrupts
the sky, and get involved in the same manner.
In an era of cost-cutting, a base is threatened with
realignment (elimination). If the pack wants to keep
the base around, the pack must get involved in human
politics; if, on the other hand, the characters would like to
use the bases land for their own ends, the pack must keep
the local Save Our Base movement from gaining too
much traction.
If the game takes place in a country where a war is
going on, the pack may find itself on the receiving end of
an invasion, as a temporary or permanent military base
is built within the characters territory. Do they drive the
base out, or take advantage of it? Such a base will attract
new spirits, threatening the local balance of power in the
Hisil.
In the World of Darkness, many military bases
contain prisons full of alleged enemy combatants and
terrorists who are neither of those things. Perhaps one of
these prisoners is a relative, Contact, Ally or Mentor of a
member of the pack. Do the Uratha dare to break in and
rescue their loved one?
Secret military research bases are surely more common in the World of Darkness than the real world, and
a small fraction of those bases sponsor investigation into
Things Humans Were Not Meant To Know. The local
army uncovers magical secrets, frees a powerful bound
spirit or inadvertently opens a gateway into the Hisil, and
the packmembers must fulfill their responsibility as the
Guardians of the Border Marches by keeping the humans
out of the spirit world.

Universit y

or Post secondary School

A university is a large, accredited institution of higher
learning that provides bachelors degrees (or higher-level
degrees) to its students. A university typically consists
of many buildings and a campus several square miles in
extent. A postsecondary school is usually a much smaller

36

place, perhaps occupying just one building or a few floors

of a large building. Postsecondary schools are mostly
specialized, and provide associates degrees in their fields
of specialty.
Creating: Such schools take a lot of time and an
enormous amount of money to create. A pack with a particular hankering for in-home education might be able to
attract a school to its territory, but this would rely more on
Social rolls and Merits than anything else. And it would
surely take time. Packs that want the benefits of a university or postsecondary school in their territory are encouraged to pick a territory that includes such an institution.
Barring that, a pack would be better off raiding a rival
packs territory to claim a big school than the pack would
be trying to lure a new school into its territory. A large
university can itself be a packs territory.
Eliminating: As with most human institutions,
a university can be eliminated through the tenacious
application of terror. However, this is sure to bring with
it problems see the sidebar on p. 18 for more details.
Driving a university out of business by going after its
finances, contributions or accreditation might be easier.
In any event, eliminating a university is a massive undertaking that should take months, if not years, of a packs
attention.
Benefits (free-form): A university or postsecondary school allows a character to buy the Encyclopedic
Knowledge Merit after character creation. Additionally,
characters who actually take advantage of the institutions
of learning in their territory (spending real training time
doing so) gain a one experience point discount to learn
any Mental Skills (so it costs eight experience points to
raise Computer from 2 to 3). Academic Contacts, Allies
and Mentors all receive the same experience discount.
Merit:
Resonance: Learning, wisdom, calcification, youth
Problems and Hooks: Thousands of young humans
spend time in these self-contained cities. Each of them has
a story.
A professor of ancient and primitive myths has begun to discover a common thread in them the presence
of wolf-men or wolf-spirits that hunt and are hunted by
other spirits. He begins working on further research into
this, and encounters the pack as part of that research.

U t ilit ies
Utilities represent the nervous and circulatory systems
of human communities. Utilities bring water, power, communications and heat to various buildings, and take away
waste. Players and Storytellers dont have to represent
ordinary power or gas lines through the utilities feature
instead, elements of this type represent noteworthy facilities: a water treatment plant, water tower, power plant,
telecommunications switching statement, major sewer
juncture, gas depot and so on.

37
Creating: These facilities represent enormous
investments of both money and political clout. Characters without high Resources and Status, as well as high
Bureaucracy and Politics scores, would be unable to even
begin such a thing.
Eliminating: Power plants and gas mains blow up real
good. Use the rules elsewhere for destroying buildings,
but double the damage effect of explosives against such
facilities (and also double the damage taken by those in
and around them). Water plants are significantly harder
to destroy, however; increase water facilities Durability by
one point or more.
Benefits (free-form): Electrical-, water- and/or firespirits cavort in the potential generated by these facilities:
+2 dice to summon a spirit of the appropriate type. In a
pinch, characters can use a Science roll to tap into a torrent of the appropriate substance. At telecommunications
switching stations, characters can use a Computer roll to
tap into the electronic communications of anyone within
a five-mile radius.
Merit:
Resonance: Health, safety, pollution, as well as water,
electricity or fire, as appropriate to the facility
Problems and Hooks:
A powerful spirit of lightning has become tainted
by a Wound or one of the Maeljin. She lairs in a local
power plant, and her taint has begun to infect the power
supply to nearby homes. Humans who rely heavily on
electricity in their everyday lives (which is to say, most of
them) slowly become more cruel; a few gruesome deaths by
electrocution occur.
Spirits of waste or decay become enraged by the work
of a water-treatment facility and use spirit abilities to prevent certain substances from being entirely removed from
the citys water supply. Those substances might be drugs,
bacteria or anything else the Storyteller deems appropriate.

Spirit/Supernat ural

These areas may only exist in the Shadow, or they

may be intrusions across the Gauntlet (either a finger of
the physical world pushing into the Hisil or part of the
spirit world interfering with material reality).

Barren
A Barren is a spiritually empty site. A Barren has no
Essence or resonance to speak of.
Creating: A Barren may come about because of the
extremely thick local Gauntlet, or a Barren may arise
because every scrap of local Essence has been sucked away
in powerful magical assaults. A pack that taps a locus
too frequently or too deeply may inadvertently create a
Barren, though this is not a common happening (see p.
263 of Werewolf: The Forsaken for the beginnings of
this). A pack that dramatically fails while using the Rite
of the Border Citadel (see p. 51) may inadvertently create
a Barren.

Eliminating: A pack may learn the Rite of Desert

Rain (see p. 50) to temporarily alleviate the effects of a
Barren; repeated use of this rite and judicious redirection
of Essence flows may create a healing process. However,
this rite is hard to track down, difficult to learn and hard
to perform. A Barren may take decades to fade on its own,
even with natural trickles of Essence directed at the site;
without this generosity, a Barren may never heal.
Benefits (free-form): There are few true benefits to a
Barren. However, there are some game effects to consider.
The Gauntlet is impenetrably thick in a Barren; any
supernatural ability that relies on the spirit world suffers
3 dice to the abilitys effectiveness. This includes the
Gifts and rites of the Uratha as well as Numina of spirits,
Ridden or the Hosts. All other supernatural abilities suffer
1 die to their efficacy in a Barren.
Merit: (No cost)
Resonance: None
Problems and Hooks:
Truly desperate spirits may hide in a Barren. This
is a losing decision in the long run, as the spirit cannot
regain Essence while in the Barren, but if the spirit is on
the run from more powerful entities, such a wasteland may
be the spirits only alternative.
A human who has somehow crossed over into
Shadow may inadvertently find that a Barren is one of the
few safe places around as few spirits enter the area, and
those that do so have a hard time harming the human.

Catalyst
A spirit catalyst site enables (and speeds) the transformation of one spirit type into another. This site does
nothing for the power of those spirits; a Gaffling will not
be infused with enough power to become a Jaggling on the
virtue of the site alone. Radical changes are unusual, and
few catalyst sites cause them. These transformations are
based on resonance.
Catalyst sites, considerably rarer than loci, tend to
occur along major Essence flows, when a large amount
of Essence is flowing from one strongly resonant site to
another of the same resonance. A catalyst might therefore
be found between two powerful loci of similar resonance.
Primal places, catalyst sites draw on the core of the
spirit world. They represent simple spirit concepts fire,
stone, death and so on. A spirit that spends too much
time at a catalyst site finds its nature tugged toward the
catalyst sites nature. A bear-spirit making its lair near a
death catalyst site might find itself a ghost bear within a
month. A hawk-spirit that regularly hunts in a fire site
may be consumed and reborn as something more akin to
a phoenix.
Creating: Catalyst sites only happen naturally and cannot be brought into being deliberately. Uratha may encourage
the creation of a catalyst site by repeatedly summoning a
particular kind of spirit in a thin Gauntlet area or by attempting to tamper with the resonance of Essence flows.
Spirit/Supernatural

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

Eliminating: Eliminating a catalyst site requires an
extinguishing or disruption of the core of the catalyst and
the raising of the local Gauntlet. This may be done with
the help of local Azlu (not likely), or through other means
as determined by the Storyteller.
Benefits (free-form): Catalyst sites have a very thin
Gauntlet (+0 dice to step sideways), no matter where they
are, though they dont count as loci. This makes the site
handy to have in an area where the Gauntlet is otherwise
thick. Other benefits may accrue as pertains to the nature
of the site Uratha always receive +1 die to their pools
to summon spirits of the appropriate type to the catalyst,
with a 1 die penalty to summon any other kind of spirit.
Merit:
Resonance: As appropriate to the catalyst
Problems and Hooks: In addition to the complications listed above, a catalyst site may also affect humans
who spend a lot of time nearby. Humans with Willpower
scores below 5 begin to take on personality traits associated with the catalyst site near a fire site they become
pyromaniacal, while near a breeding site they become
more amorous.

Glade
A glade is a fountain of positive emotion and peaceful energy. Glades are havens within the Shadow, and are
extremely rare in the modern day.
Creating: Glades only arise in sites with positive,
healthy, peaceful resonance. Creating a glade would
require eliminating any sources of negative or dissonant
resonance, keeping the site safe (without violence or
frenzy) over a period of time and continually investing Essence of positive resonance into the site. The process may
take months, even years of constant attention but the
benefits for the spirit world are great.
Eliminating: Glades can lose their power if they become the sites of great violence. Although a single battle
or act of bloodshed probably wont undo a glades power,
repeated violent acts or extended ritual acts of cruelty can
undo the glades harmony. Most werewolves with a glade
in their territory are careful to keep the battle lines well
away from the place.
Benefits (free-form): To initiate a fight within a glade
(or to continue a running battle that enters a glade), the
character must succeed in a Resolve check. Even if that
roll succeeds, the attacker suffers 2 dice to all rolls to attack or hurt another, or to transform into the Gauru form.
Defenders or those seeking to prevent violence receive +2
dice to all pools rolled to that end.
Merit:
Resonance: Peace, healing, rest
Problems and Hooks:
A wounded and desperate pack of rival Uratha
makes camp in a glade belonging to the characters pack
without permission or notification. Does the pack honor
the nature of the glade, or defend its territory?

38

Locus
A locus is a center and fountain of spiritual energy (or
Essence). Loci also represent crossing points between
the spirit world and physical world.
For more detail on loci, see pp. 260264 of Werewolf:
The Forsaken.
Creating: Uratha must invest 150 points of appropriately resonant Essence into an object to increase that
objects locus rating by one point. That Essence must
remain undisturbed for a full week. For more information,
see Werewolf: The Forsaken, p. 262.
Eliminating: To eliminate a locus, the pack must destroy the physical object that encapsulates the locus, and
then counter the ambient resonance of the area by investing 150 points of Essence whose resonance opposes the
local resonance. Each time this is done, the local areas
potential to serve as a locus decreases by one rating point.
Benefits (free-form): See Werewolf: The Forsaken,
p. 262.
Merit: A locus that is fully under the control of the pack
counts as a Merit whose rating is equal to the locus rating.
Resonance: As appropriate to the locus
Problems and Hooks: Loci are central points in the
lives of the Uratha. Spirits congregate near loci, Uratha
rely on loci to accumulate Essence, the Gauntlet is thin
near them and loci can even alter the local landscape and
mood through their resonance. Azlu, in particular, like to
hunt near loci. By a locus very nature, a locus is sure to be
the focus of many stories over the course of a chronicle.

S hoal
A shoal, as described on p. 258 of Werewolf: The
Forsaken, is a pool of negative emotions and nihilism.
Uratha who enter a shoal find themselves too overwhelmed by ennui to stand up and leave the area, even in
the face of hunger or other stimuli.
Creating: Like many other negative manifestations of
the Shadow, shoals may come into being from any number
of stimuli. Shoals seem to be particularly attached to the
emotional echo of extreme inaction and negativity. The
site of Kitty Genoveses murder in New York City (a young
woman was raped and murdered while her neighbors watched
without calling the police or intervening) is a shoal. Some
crack houses cause shoals to come into being. An Internet
caf where a patron died by sitting and playing video games
for more than two days could also create a shoal.
Eliminating: The bleak resonance of the shoal must
be countered with action and Essence tinged with enthusiasm. Just as healing a Barren or Wound, this is a process
that requires great effort over an extended period of time.
Benefits (free-form): There are no benefits to having a shoal in your territory. An attempt to leave a shoal
requires a Resolve + Composure roll (any wound penalties
apply); failure prevents departure, and each subsequent roll
suffers a cumulative 1 penalty.

39
Merit: (No cost)
Resonance: Depression, sloth, introspection, paralysis
Problems and Hooks:
A packmate or mentor goes missing; she was last
seen wounded near an area known to be a shoal. The pack
must find her before anything else does.
Some spirits are rumored to be immune to the taint
of the shoal. These predators wait for passersby to become
overwhelmed by listlessness, and then attack. The trapped
person or werewolf can defend himself, but cannot flee.

Verge
Verges are fleeting places where there is no Gauntlet
at all the barrier between worlds has worn so thin that
a person or spirit can cross from one world to the other
freely. On certain nights, a person might walk down the
wrong alley and find himself between the twisting buildings of the Shadow. A verge is not a constant feature;
most seem to manifest only once a year, or even less frequently. Verges do not generate Essence they are simply
portals across the Gauntlet of temporary nature.
Creating: By their nature, verges are difficult to
predict, much less create. Some werewolves believe that if
a nest of Beshilu is left alone too long, they might gnaw
several verges in the local Gauntlet. Some verges manifest
on the anniversary of spiritual events of particular force,
which would imply that creating a similar event would
have a chance of creating a verge. Unfortunately, which
factors contribute most strongly toward a verges creation
have yet to be determined.
Eliminating: Rites that raise the Gauntlet, such as
Fortify the Border Marches, can temporarily seal a verge.
No rite seems to be able to permanently remove a verge
from existence, as the rift between worlds may yet return
when the time becomes right once more.
Benefits (free-form): A verge provides instant access to and from the spirit world, which makes a verge a
painless way to step sideways. Of course, this benefit is
available only on nights when the verge manifests, which
is a considerably limiting factor.
Merit:
Resonance: None innate
Problems and Hooks: A verge tends to provide far
more problems than benefits to a werewolf pack. While a
verge remains open, humans become lost in the Shadow
where they have little chance of survival, and spirits move
freely into the physical world to pursue their own ambitions. The night a verge opens in a packs territory is sure
to be a busy one for the pack.

Window
Occasionally a window between worlds opens, allowing viewers on either side of the Gauntlet a clear view
of what lies on the other side. A spirit window doesnt
remain open at all times, mostly remaining present
but opaque. Between the hours of midnight and 12:03, a

computer screen shows flashes of the other world; a sole

remaining pane of glass in a derelict building displays
strange images when the wind comes from the northwest.
The sights it offers may induce Lunacy in humans; only a
few are able to look on the Shadow for what it is, whether
they understand it or not.
Typically a window is bounded by physical phenomenon one may arise between two trees or through
a particular doorway. Windows are only visible from a
specific angle that doorway may look perfectly ordinary
from outside the house but open onto a terrifying spirit
world wasteland when viewed from within. A window
does not allow passage through the Gauntlet; a window
only allows vision (and possibly other senses) to operate
through it. Windows function in both directions through
the Gauntlet those in the Hisil can also use a window
to see the physical realm.
Creating: There are no known ways to deliberately create a spirit window, though its rumored that accidental use
of certain Gifts, rites or Numina might cause such a thing to
come into being. Windows mostly arise spontaneously, and
are a phenomenon few werewolves can properly explain.
Eliminating: Spirit windows are fragile and temporary things. If the local Gauntlet increases or decreases for
any reason, the window is eliminated.
Benefits (free-form): Other than the obvious benefit
for Uratha, spirits tend to congregate near windows, hoping for a glimpse of the paradise of the physical world.
Merit:
Resonance: Perception, madness
Problems and Hooks: Spirit windows can trigger
strange reactions in humans, from an unhealthy fascination with the supernatural to near-madness. Spirits find it
easier to monitor the physical world for potential opportunities, and those that might not have been tempted to
cross the Gauntlet on their own might feel that urge once
they see the lures of the physical through a window.

Wound
To an observer in the spirit world, a Wound seems
like a street corner in Hell. A Wound vomits forth
extremely negative Essence; a Wound is a site where the
spirit wilds themselves are damaged. Wounds are full of
violent, diseased, corrupt spirits that gnaw on the vile
Essence belched forth from the site, and then fight among
themselves or assault travelers.
Creating: Thankfully, Wounds are not easy to create.
They erupt only in the spirit wilds echo of a location
where true horror occurred plague, natural disaster or
genocide or other mortal atrocity.
Eliminating: There is no known certain way to
destroy a Wound. Destroying it is a war, not a battle; the
process requires driving away or capturing the spirits that
dwell there, enacting powerful rituals of cleansing and
working diligently in the physical world to soothe the
painful memories associated with the place.
Spirit/Supernatural

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

Benefits (free-form): Only Bale Hounds would consider
owning a territory that includes a Wound to be beneficial.
All Harmony rolls and rolls to resist Death Rage are at 2
dice while within a Wound. All injuries suffered within a
Wound do one additional point of Health or Corpus damage.
Merit: (No cost)
Resonance: Cruelty, slaughter, pain, despair, fear
almost any negative emotion
Problems and Hooks: The existence of a Wound
within a packs territory is a major problem and is likely to
drive the core of the chronicles storyline.

Territory D escriptors
The following descriptors could feasibly apply
many territory elements,
within reason. Few places
have more than one descriptor, and many places
have no extra descriptors
at all. Each descriptor
has the same sorts of
features as those already
described; the only difference is that descriptors add to an existing
territory element. Merit
costs that are listed as
+ mean that they add
one dot to the Merit cost
of an existing location.
A cost means that
the element is one dot
cheaper than it would
ordinarily be (though
no elements cost can
ever be reduced below
free).
Storytellers and
other players are within their power to veto an
especially silly combination
(particularly the stacking
of descriptor on descriptor a
bloody arcane haunted site, for
instance), but, in general, troupe are
encouraged to say yes to unusual ideas if they are
well-justified or would lead to good and believable stories.

A mbush Site
This descriptor represents a location within the packs
territory where all of the Uratha of the pack know that
they can get the drop on enemies wandering through. It is
up to players to define and describe why a given location is
a good ambush site. It may be a blind alley, a killing field

40

empty lot with no cover anywhere or a twisted junkyard

maze.
Creating: Werewolves with a good sense of tactics
should be able to create an ambush site with a few hours
preparation. Most rolls to set up an ambush site are based
on Intelligence, but Storytellers might choose to combine
Intelligence with Crafts, Athletics, Firearms, Stealth or
Survival.
Eliminating: Some ambush sites are easy to demolish if your foes have set up an ambush by creating lots
of cover, destroy the cover with whatever is handy. Other
sites cant be destroyed short of building demolition (usually based on Intelligence + Science see the World of
Darkness Rulebook, p. 178).
Benefits (free-form): An
ambush site is designed for
letting the pack claim
the element of surprise.
A good ambush site
also provides partial
concealment or better
(2 to opponents dice
pools to attack) and
cover (see the World
of Darkness Rulebook,
pp. 162164).
Merit:
Resonance: Violence, defense, alertness
Problems and
Hooks: The value of a
good defensive fortification is evident to other
packs, and such a feature
might quickly become
contested. In addition, if
the pack makes a habit
of bushwhacking victims
there, the amount of
blood shed may draw the
wrong sort of spirits or
taint the local resonance.

Arcane
An arcane area sees
traffic from one or more sorcerers, witches or other magic-using
humans. The pack may see them as potential allies or
deadly enemies, but usually the two groups settle into a
loose rivalry where supernatural features of the area are
concerned.
Creating: Many things can attract mages to a location. Loci seem to attract them, as some mages relish the
powerful Essence flows near a locus. Some mages also summon spirits (and know enough to summon in a location
that is resonant to the spirits type). However, sometimes a

41
cabal of wizards is attracted to a location that has a thick
Gauntlet and a weak connection to the Hisil. Few Uratha
mystics can even hazard a guess as to what such wizards
are up to.
Eliminating: Uratha may find it easiest to simply
slaughter mages who intrude in the packs territory, but
there are two primary complications to this. First, mages
are powerful beings; their most elder scholars can hold
their own against a pack of werewolves, and a cabal of
mages is certainly capable of fending off a pack. Secondly, even if Uratha can drive off or slaughter local
mages, whatever causes this area to be arcane will remain;
werewolves must trace the magical anomaly that makes
this area so interesting to wizards, and somehow eliminate
it, if the werewolves wish to rid themselves of interested
wizards.
Benefits (free-form): Uratha who cultivate an arcane
area or otherwise retain friendly relations with local mages
receive a 1 experience point cost to purchase or improve
wizardly Contacts. Many mages are attracted to centers of
learning; Uratha of a more scholarly bent may find arcane
areas to their liking.
Merit: +
Resonance: Learning (not necessarily wisdom),
secrets, mystery, change
Problems and Hooks:
Mages who summon spirits from the Shadow are in
direct violation of werewolves edict to patrol and protect
the Border Marches. Few mages are aware of the laws of
Father Wolf, but powerful human shamans have posed
problems for Uratha since before the Fall. Keeping such
beings in check is an important task for dutiful Uratha.
A wizard creates a powerful artificial person a
robot, or animated statue or column of sentient muscle
and sinew. This creature seems to be truly sentient, and,
for whatever reason, it is immune to most magic. Magical
contacts approach the pack for help; an aggressive pack
will find that most Gifts dont work against the artificial
person. If the werewolves wish to destroy it, theyll have to
get down to tooth and claw.
In order to power a mighty spell, mages who live
nearby need body parts from a werewolf whether living
or dead. There are plenty of ways this could go: Wizards
might begin to hunt the Uratha (a nice play on the games
hunt or be hunted theme). Sufficiently sympathetic
mages might ask for (or offer to buy) blood, fur or claws.
Or the mages might go after nearby Pure Ones.

Contested
A contested element is one that is directly and
actively fought over by the players pack and another pack
of Uratha. Werewolves must use caution in any conflict,
for their Rage may get the best of them, and yet the People
may not slay the People without grievous repercussions.
Creating: A pack can easily create a border region by
raiding another packs territory the border region then

comes out of the other packs territory and is considered

contested. The opposite side of that coin is that a rival
pack may contest a particularly lucrative area within the
packs territory.
Eliminating: The two packs must reach a concord of
some kind either through violence and submission, or
through diplomacy (our money is on the former).
Benefits (free-form): The only real benefit of contested territory is the possibility of expanding the packs
territory even farther by handing their rivals a particularly
sound defeat.
Merit: -
Resonance: Per the base feature
Problems and Hooks: In addition to clashes of sheer
territoriality, many potential subplots can arise from
contested territory. Two packs might clash over a medical
clinic in hopes of drawing spirits of healing to their sides,
or attempt to control a bar for pure status purposes. By the
same token, in a territory-driven chronicle, the Storyteller
should place a few lucrative areas in other packs lands,
and thereby tempt the players pack to raid its rivals territories.

E ssence Current/Ley Line

Essence doesnt just pool in place or slowly ebb from
one location to another. Essence also races from one place
to another at high speed. An Essence flow generally runs
from one locus to another. These loci may have nearly
identical resonance, or they may have opposed resonances. Essence flows swiftly through the line, at speeds
of hundreds of miles per hour. If the current connects
two loci of identical resonance, the ley line serves to keep
the two loci roughly balanced (in terms of the amount of
Essence each holds). If the current connects two opposing loci, the ley line keeps each locus strong by funneling
Essence toward the appropriate locus. Ley lines sometimes
spontaneously emerge between loci that are dozens of
miles apart or even farther.
Note that ley lines do not naturally raise a locus rating. Instead, they simply balance the amount of Essence
flowing through an area.
Ley lines tend to run along natural paths where
possible they flow along with rivers or streams, along
strong wind currents or even mineral veins underground.
If no such obvious path exists, Essence may flow along
human-made paths, roads or even along with power or
sewage lines.
Creating: Essence currents tend to arise spontaneously. Some Uratha study the ebb and flow of Essence and
attempt to direct it using methods similar to the practice
of feng shui.
Eliminating: An Essence current is destroyed if the
locus at either end is destroyed or tapped of all its Essence
(even temporarily). Unruly spirits may choose to dam,
disrupt or otherwise interfere with its flow.
Territory Descriptors

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

Benefits (free-form): Ley lines can be used to drain
negative Essence from the local area, by connecting a
powerful local locus to a weak remote one. The negative
Essence doesnt vanish forever, of course it is simply
leached away to a place that is someone elses problem. Essence currents can also be used to support a nearby locus,
by aligning it to a powerful remote locus.
Merit: +
Resonance: Based on the loci at either end
Problems and Hooks: A packs rivals and enemies
can use an Essence current in the same way that the
Uratha who control it can. Additionally, if the packs foes
control one end of the current or the other, they can effectively stop up the current.

Notorious
This chunk of the packs territory is sufficiently weird
that a few unusual humans are attracted to it. Humans
tend to be curious monkeys; while most humans will avoid
overtly dangerous areas, this particular place isnt so much
dangerous as it is interesting to mortals. The humans in
question may be just a lone hunter, a small group of monster-hunters or an arm of an organization such as the
Catholic Church. The mortals probably have no idea what
a werewolf is, beyond what theyve seen in movies and
they may well have no idea that the pack is in fact a group
of werewolves. The humans only know that weird shit is
going on, and they are curious enough to stick around and
try to learn what.
Creating: Werewolves can create an air of notoriety
by being sloppy or by allowing particularly vibrant spiritual activity to run unchecked. When adding an area like
this to the packs territory, be sure to describe precisely
what attracts local weirdoes, and at least make a first pass
as to what they think is going on.
Eliminating: Stay away. Destroy any wayward spirits.
Create fake evidence that explains the weird stuff away
(swamp gas!).
Benefits (free-form): Curious mortals of the attractive sex are even more powerfully attracted to creatures
such as Uratha than ordinary mortals are +1 die to
seduce curious mortals in your own territory. The presence of mortals with pet theories regarding local weirdness can help to explain away actual weird stuff +1 to
Subterfuge pools to cover up supernatural activity in such
an area. One experience point cost discount on Allies or
Contacts in the monster-hunter hobby.
Merit: (No change)
Resonance: Secrets, paranoia, dread
Problems and Hooks: Notoriety may be what draws
the pack to claim a section of territory as the packs own
in the first place. Local urban legend may lead a pack to a
potential locus or to supernatural activity that needs to be
quelled for the good of the area.

42

Something other than the pack is hunting

local monster-hunters and freaks. Is it the Pure Ones?
Vampires? Rogue spirits?
A local monster-hunter gets a sequence of photographs of one packmember shifting all the way through
the sequence from Dalu to Urhan. The next time she sees
that packmember, she attempts to blackmail him, extort
information from him or beg him for help.

H aunted
The area in question is infested with one or more
ghosts. For the most part, ghosts in the World of Darkness
are the emotional impression left over by particularly violent deaths or by those who died while still leaving something important in their lives unresolved. Some ghosts are
self-aware they realize that they are ghosts. Others are
mostly self-aware, but do not realize that they are ghosts.
Still others are simple whorls of rage, or mindless automatons, endlessly repeating the actions immediately preceding their demise.
Although ghosts have many things in common with
spirits, ghosts are not spirits, and werewolves have fewer
means overall to deal with ghosts than with spirits.
Creating: Haunted areas are most likely to arise in
locations commonly associated with death be they the
sites of a murder or suicide, a cemetery or even a church or
other memorial site. Uratha sometimes inadvertently create a haunted area by killing humans and creating ghosts.
Eliminating: A haunted area can be eliminated by
destroying the ghosts in it, or by helping them let go of the
mortal world. This activity depends heavily on the ghosts
nature; a werewolf is well-advised to do some research into
local history to discover what may be the events surrounding a ghosts mortal life.
Benefits (free-form): The dead are inherently unnerving to humans; decrease humans effective Willpower
by 1 for purposes of Lunacy while the human remains in
a haunted area. Ghosts see and hear a lot of things that
mortals miss, as ghosts lurk invisibly near areas that were
important to them in life. A ghost may be willing to part
with useful information in return for a treasured reminder
of the living world.
Merit: +
Resonance: Death
Problems and Hooks: Some ghosts are openly
hostile, and even those who arent may make life difficult
for the werewolves nearby. A haunted area may also gain a
measure of notoriety (see below).

M edia Center
This feature gets a lot of attention from the local
media. A media center may be a hub of local politics or
sports, or be frequented by celebrities. Events that transpire in such an area are much more likely to get attention
from local media for better or worse.

43
Creating: Attracting the attention of local media can
be achieved in a number of ways, though the most effective is to study the local media for patterns of what they
find most newsworthy and then arrange for such news to
happen.
Eliminating: Many reporters, cameramen and talking
heads are easily scared away from dangerous locations.
Real reporters whether print, radio, television or
Internet will only become more intrigued by a dangerous area. Such individuals must be bored away; a pack attempting such a thing must actively suppress newsworthy
events for at least six months.
Benefits (free-form): 1 experience point cost to buy
media-related Contacts (as newspeople are always lurking
around somewhere). Werewolves looking to publicize local
goings-on can do so with +2 dice to their pool by taking
advantage of a media center.
Merit: +
Resonance: Exposure, light
Problems and Hooks: The primary fear that Uratha
must have regarding a media center is that of exposure. A
pack of werewolves ripping one of the hithimu limb from
limb in the background of a television report on the local
sports team could be disastrous.

Neutral Ground
Neutral ground is territory that no pack claims, and
which all local packs agree is free for all. The local Pure

Ones may even participate in such an agreement, though

this is unlikely. Neutral ground typically borders on the
territories of several packs. However, a piece of territory
cannot be both neutral and contested (see above), as an
area is either accepted as neutral or is contested by two or
more packs. By definition, this descriptor cant be added to
a territory feature that a pack controls, but is included for
purposes of thoroughness. When designing a packs territory and the larger area of a chronicle, figuring out where
the neutral ground is in relation to the packs own turf is
important.
Creating: A patch of ground may be traditionally
neutral ground, such as a high mountain, or a high-traffic area in the middle of the city. A pack may carve out
neutral ground between the packs territory and adjacent
packs territories by negotiating with those packs. Or an
area might be neutral ground simply because no pack currently claims it.
Eliminating: Easy violate the neutrality of the
ground, by claiming it as your own. Nearby packs will
probably respond poorly to that, but you knew that when
you took this job.
Benefits (free-form): Neutral ground is designated as
such by local elders. As a result, violating neutral ground
with violence against another werewolf is a minor (level
8) Harmony sin by virtue of violating an elders edict.
Neutral ground does give packs a comfortable buffer, and
a chance to get to know one another and share news

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

about local supernatural activity. 1 experience point
cost discount to take an Uratha Storyteller character as a
Contact, so long as both packs hold true to the neutrality
of the nearby neutral ground.
Merit: No cost for this element. It is near your packs
territory, but you do not control it. By definition, you do
not receive any of the elements game-mechanical benefits.
Resonance: Peace
Problems and Hooks:
Neutral ground sometimes suffers the tragedy of the
commons, as members of any pack feel that they can do as
they please in neutral territory without repercussions.
Neutral ground is most often used for negotiations
or other meetings between rival packs. Some packs even
party together in such areas.

Occluded
An occluded area is one through which it is exceptionally difficult to track prey. There are numerous strange
smells, sounds and frequent piles of debris that serve to
hide prey and make it more difficult for a predator to keep
tabs on his quarry. This could represent anything from a
stretch of wilderness with many small streams that break
up scent trails to the mess, stink and noise of a stockyard.
Creating: Uratha who want good hiding places or
escape routes may create their own mazes perhaps in a
junkyard or thick forest. This is mostly a matter of physical labor; perhaps a good week of labor is required to build
such a site.
Eliminating: Only hard physical labor should clean
up an occluded site.
Benefits (free-form): +2 dice to all Stealth rolls to
those who are familiar with the occluded site.
Merit: +
Resonance: Escape, safety, hunger
Problems and Hooks:
A rival pack discovers the occluded area and spends
enough time surveying it that they can take advantage
of it; that rival pack begins to use the occluded area as a
staging ground for their own activities within the packs
territory.

Poor
In game terms, a poor area is one where the average member of the population has a lower-than-average
Resources. Most people in a poor area have no more than
one dot in Resources; many have zero dots of Resources
and lead truly desperate lives.
Creating: The causes of poverty are complex beyond
the ability of this sourcebook to trace. Widespread crime,
violence and destruction can lead to increased poverty in
a neighborhood, as those with the resources to leave do so,
leaving only the poor behind.
Eliminating: As with creating, this is a complex
issue. One sample way to eliminate the poor descriptor

44

over an area is to attract students and artists to a region.

This can lead to the opening of trendy and slightly
dangerous nightclubs, which attract suburban kids who
want a wild night on the town. Soon arthouses open up in
support of the local artists, and gentrification begins; poor
locals are driven away and the poor descriptor is gone
(though few of the poor residents truly benefit from the
switch).
Benefits (free-form): Drugs and criminal activity
abound; +1 die to all Larceny dice pools in a poor neighborhood. Legal goods costing more than a Resources
roll are hard to come by (1 die from Resources pools to
buy goods costing more than that). Violence also abounds,
and spirits of violence and retribution are prone to haunt
the streets (+1 die to summon such spirits; 1 die to pools
to summon spirits of peace or prosperity). Criminal activity in poor neighborhoods tends to go underreported;
characters may wish to go to ground in a poor neighborhood to hide from the local authorities (and receive +1 die
to Stealth pools to do so).
Merit: +
Resonance: Poverty, greed
Problems and Hooks: Human activity can drive
storylines in a poor neighborhood. As described above,
crime is high; mortal gangs may have rivalries within
the neighborhood, and violence can erupt at a moments
notice. Drug use is rampant in poor neighborhoods in the
World of Darkness; addicted mortals tend to create Barrens or Wounds echoing in the spirit world. Police rarely
spend much time in the poorest neighborhoods; Uratha
may find themselves as the self-appointed neighborhood
vigilant committee, keeping things as safe as they can. In
the World of Darkness, police may actually take advantage
of poor residents, setting up their own criminal empire in
the poorest parts of the city.

Pure
Related to contested areas, Pure areas are those for
which the pack must vie with the Pure Tribes for control.
These areas are specifically sacred to the Pure Tribes; for
some reason, any pack of the Pure that knows of this space
is likely to come after the pack and challenge the packs
control of the space. Pure areas are more dangerous to the
Forsaken than Border areas are; struggles for dominance
between cousins are common and rarely end in death,
but a battle between a pack of the Forsaken and one of the
Pure may well end in death. Additionally, the Pure have
the same expansionist and territorial imperatives that the
Forsaken have. If the Pure contest for the financial district
today, they may well be coming after the citys nearby
waterfront next.
Creating: The players pack may add a Pure region
to the packs territory by seizing a bit of territory from a
nearby pack of Pure Tribes. This isnt trivial, of course; it
is likely to lead to ongoing guerilla combat until one pack
or the other withdraws. The Storyteller may turn part of

45
the packs territory into a Pure area by having a pack of
the Pure invade it.
Eliminating: There are three ways to make an area
no longer Pure: the pack of Forsaken can destroy or drive
off nearby Pure (however, as described above, if another
pack of Pure Tribes comes through the area, the Pure are
likely to be equally angry with the pack for its control of
this place), or the pack can withdraw from the area, yielding it to the Anshega (the area remains Pure, of course, but
it is no longer part of the packs territory). Lastly, the pack
may come to some kind of agreement with the Pure. This
is unlikely in the extreme.
Benefits (free-form): None
Merit: - (two dots cheaper)
Resonance: Per the base feature
Problems and Hooks: Even a single Pure is a major
problem. It is up to the Storyteller to determine the packs
motivations and activities. While the Pure may not be
actively expanding into the players packs territory, they
wont want to hold hands and sing Kumbaya either.
However, if the troupes pack spends all its time worrying
about (and attending to) the Pures activities, the rest of
the packs territory will begin to fall apart.

Rich
A rich area in the packs territory is one where the
average Resources is higher than normal. When applied
to a given feature in the territory, rich simply means that
feature is especially ritzy. A rich shop might be a highclass clothing store or expensive restaurant. A rich apartment building might be a secure, downtown high-rise.
Creating: Money attracts money. Persuade a few
wealthy people to begin frequenting (or live in) an area,
and more are likely to come. Politics, Bureaucracy and
Finance rolls may come in handy to help control zoning
and taxation in appropriate ways.
Eliminating: Increase the level of violence and crime
in an area to drive rich people elsewhere.
Benefits (free-form): Money tends to attract money.
To purchase the fourth or fifth dot in the Resources Merit,
the cost is 1 experience point.
Merit: +
Resonance: Wealth, greed
Problems and Hooks: Rich areas are more secure
than poor ones. Police presence is greater, and private security is much more prevalent. 1 die to all Larceny pools
in a rich area.

Sanguine
A sanguine area is one frequented by vampires. As
hunters of human blood, vampires prefer to prowl areas
where a lone human might be caught and drained of blood
without alerting the authorities. These areas may be college
campuses, nightclub districts, slums or nearly anywhere else.
Most vampires prefer city living more victims per acre
but some can be found in the wilderness.

Werewolves and vampires can coexist in the World

of Darkness; some even live as allies or lovers. This is rare,
though. Uratha and vampires are both predators, and although
they hunt different things, each has a tendency to challenge
the others activities in common territory. Uratha may choose
to designate part of their territory as fair game for the local
bloodsuckers, or otherwise come to accord with them.
Creating: Vampires are attracted to places where
humans are both active and blind at night. A pack that
wishes to attract vampires to an area, therefore, must attract nightlife.
Eliminating: Destroying or driving off the local
vampire population will temporarily eliminate a sanguine
area, but if humans continue to frequent the same places
at night, vampires will return to it, as the predators they
really are. Driving off the vampires for good requires a
pack to drive off the humans that attract the vampires.
Benefits (free-form): Werewolves who remain on
civil terms with local blood-drinkers can buy vampiric
Contacts at 1 experience point. Areas that attract vampires tend to have plenty of humans around, which may
make it easier for werewolves to find a human on short
notice for whatever purpose.
Merit: +
Resonance: Hunger, thirst, death
Problems and Hooks:
A feud between local vampires spreads to include
the pack, as one of the vampires offers local werewolves
a bounty on members of a vampire gang known as the
Dragons. Even if the players pack ignores the offer, other
local packs may get involved on opposite sides of the feud.
A packmembers teenage child is attacked by what
appear to be vampires, leaving bloody wounds on the
teens neck. If there is a treaty of sorts between the
Uratha and vampires, surely this shatters it. But which
vampires attacked her?

Virgin
Virgin territory is land that humans have never set foot
in or, at least, land that humans have left no mark on.
Creating: Either a place is virgin or it isnt; the mark
of humanity cannot be scrubbed from an area.
Eliminating: Easy. Invite a group of humans out to
the special place in the woods that you know about.
Benefits (free-form): Essence generated in a virgin
area is especially potent for spirits not associated with
humankind. The resonance of a virgin area may be nearly
anything of the natural world. A locus in a virgin area
that produces an appropriate resonance produces one additional point of Essence per day. (A Rating 4 virgin locus
with a forest resonance would produce 13 Essence per
day.) If materials to create a fetish are taken from a virgin
area, the ritualist may add 1 to his dice pool, as long as the
fetish and spirit are of an appropriate resonance. A locus
in a virgin area is increased in strength by 1 Rating point.
Territory Descriptors

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

Merit: +
Resonance: Per the base feature
Problems and Hooks: Uratha who wish to preserve a
virgin stretch of wilderness have to work at it. Curious and
lost humans might accidentally happen across the area
although in the modern day they would have to work
hard to find a site that no human had ever visited before.

Territory-Wide D escriptors

The descriptors listed below can, at the Storytellers

discretion, apply to an entire territory as well as the surrounding areas. These descriptors cannot be created or
destroyed, and they have no Merit cost. Only in the rarest
and weirdest of cases would one of the following descriptors apply to just one part of a packs territory. They are
regional. The Storyteller may prefer not to bother with
these descriptors if every packs territory in a region is
tropical, he may not bother applying the associated dice
pool bonuses and penalties, since they apply equally to
everyone in the chronicle.

Arct ic
This descriptor applies to regions north of the Arctic
Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle (more than 66
degrees from the equator) though, as with tropical, if
the group generally agrees that a given area is effectively
arctic, regardless of its actual latitude, this descriptor can
apply. These are cold regions deadly in deep winter and
only mild in the summer. True arctic regions (beyond 66
degrees latitude) experience midnight sun in summer, as
the sun stays above the horizon for six months, and noon
moon in winter, as the sun stays below the horizon for six
months.
Effects: 1 die to summon spirits of heat, fire, water
and fertility. +1 die to summon spirits of cold, snow and
winter. 1 die to Survival pools during winter; +1 die to
Survival pools during summer. The midnight sun tends
to keep away vampires and nocturnal spirits (5 dice to
summon nocturnal spirits during summertime), while the
noon moon attracts both (+5 dice to summon nocturnal
spirits during winter).

Dry
This descriptor applies to any region that generally
experiences low rainfall. The area doesnt have to be a
desert the plains of western North America can be
quite dry without being a desert.
Effects: 1 die to summon spirits of water; +1 die to
summon spirits of wind or fire. 1 die to Survival rolls
generally, as water is hard to find (except for tracking and
similar uses of the skill).

H igh
This descriptor refers to any region that is above
5,000 feet in altitude. The air is thin here; nights are
colder and days hotter than lands lower down.

46

Effects: 1 die from all Stamina rolls until the

character becomes acclimated to the local oxygen levels,
a process that takes 20 successes accumulated over daily
Stamina + Athletics rolls.

Tropical
This applies to tropical or subtropical regions technically, tropical areas are within 23 degrees of the equator,
but the group is welcome to define certain parts of the
United States (for instance) as being effectively tropical.
These are hot regions sometimes deadly in the summer
and only mild in the winter.
Effects: 1 die to summon spirits of snow, cold or
winter; +1 die to summon spirits of heat and fire. 1 die
to Survival pools during summer; +1 die to Survival pools
during winter.

We t
This descriptor refers to any region that experiences
regular heavy rainfall, such as coastal tropical areas or
ocean islands. The region may suffer a monsoon season, or
may simply be generally rainy.
Effects: +1 die to summon spirits of water; 1 die to
summon spirits of fire. +1 die to Survival dice pools if they
pertain to tracking footprints, unless it has rained since
the prints were made (in which case 4 dice).

E xpanding Spirit World Features

Players or Storytellers may wish to come
up with new features not described here. In the
case of real-world features, the various features
listed above should serve as models. The spirit
world is, however, a strange place that operates
according to its own rules rules that even the
Uratha dont always understand. There is no easy
template for spirit world sites. The following list
of themes or inspirations is provided for Storytellers and players to use as they see fit. These bullet
points arent suggestions for elements in and of
themselves, but, rather, suggestions for themes
for elements.
Superstructure/Endoskeleton (elements
might include Essence conduits, support structures and so on)
Design/Blueprint (magical sigils writ large;
map of the local area with effects on the real
world)
Raw Materials/Supplies (spring that
pours out water or liquid fire or blood; trees that
grow at a rate of six inches per day)
Body/Corpse (areas that provide sensory
input from other areas far away; locations where
dark thoughts or emotions are made manifest)
Scavengers (dead spirits and things that
feed on them)

47
Intense Weather (lightning strike bursts
of enormous quantities of Essence too great for a
single werewolf or spirit to hold)
Projector/Platos Cave (echoes of
real/unreal places, things, spirits, mortals or
werewolves)

Territorial M erit s,
Gif t s and Rites
M erit s

These Merits can only be taken by Uratha, though, at

the Storytellers discretion, thee Merits may be appropriate
for those with the Wolf-Blooded Merit. They can be taken
after character creation.

E yrie ()
You know the best lookout points and lines of sight
within your packs territory. You receive +2 dice to all
Perception pools while within your own territory, and if
you attack a foe at range, you receive +1 die to your pool
to do so.
This Merit can only be learned by a werewolf with a
defined territory.

This Merit can only be learned by a werewolf with a

defined territory.

Secre t Paths ()
You know better than anyone else how to move
around your own territory unobserved. You receive +2 dice
to Stealth pools while in your packs territory. Moreover,
if you have one turn to prepare, you can quickly rig up
a good hiding place that gives an additional +2 dice to
Stealth pools and one point of cover.
This Merit can only be learned by a werewolf with a
defined territory.

S hort Cut s ()
You know the best, fastest routes through your packs
territory, even if they involve going across rooftops or
through basements. Once per session, if your path is
blocked by an obstacle within your own territory, you can
declare to the Storyteller that you know a shortcut that
lets you bypass the obstacle without slowing you at all.
This Merit can only be learned by a werewolf with a
defined territory.

Local ()
You are so comfortable within your packs territory that you blend right in with local humans. They
accept you as one of their own. You receive +1 die
on all Social rolls when dealing with humans
in your territory. Humans in your territory
unconsciously suspect that theres something
strange about you, but know that you are one
of them humans in your territory receive
+1 to their effective Willpower to resist Lunacy that you cause. If you are seen alone in
Urshul form in your territory, for instance, the
Willpower 5 observer reacts as though he had
Willpower 6. If you and your three packmates
(who lack this Merit) all shapeshift within
sight, the same guy would respond to you all
with his base Willpower 5.
This Merit can only be learned by a
werewolf with a defined territory.

Nimble D efender ()
You know the best spots from which to defend
yourself in your packs territory. When in your
packs territory, you receive +1 to your Defense score.
In addition, you receive +1 die to Athletics rolls to move
around within your territory (to keep your footing, climb
or keep your balance, for instance you know that Old
Man Ratcliffes roof is slippery, but your foes do not).
Territorial Merits, Gifts and Rites

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

Scout ()
You are exceptionally talented at scoping out an
enemys territory, so long as you are not interfered with
and dont attack. You receive +1 die to Perception and
Stealth dice pools in a rival werewolfs territory.

S taunch D efender ()
You are especially fierce when defending your packs
territory. When in your packs territory and fighting an
invader to that territory, receive a bonus die to all attack
pools made with claws and teeth. This Merit does no good
against any humans, other werewolves or other supernatural creatures that live within your packs territory, or spirits
that belong there (or that you have summoned there).
Your ferocity in defending your territory gives you 1 die
to resist Kuruth while doing so.
This Merit can only be learned by a werewolf with a
defined territory.

Vicious A t tacker ()
You have no respect for other werewolves territory
and see their territorial claims as a challenge to your own
dominance. When invading another werewolfs territory,
you receive +1 die to attacks made with claws and teeth
against that werewolf or his allies. This Merit does not
provide you with any benefit against humans or supernatural entities that live in your opponents territory, unless
they specifically take up arms to help those werewolves.
(If the local police attack you because you appear to be a
shotgun-toting maniac, you get no benefit from this Merit;
if a werewolfs spouse attacks you because you are fighting
his wife, this Merit does apply.) This Merit provides you
no benefit if you are fighting another werewolf in neutral
ground or in territory he does not claim as his own.

Territory Gif t s

Uratha instinctively know that they must claim territory as their own. These Gifts aid werewolves in protecting
their own territory and assessing the strength of rivals who
control territory nearby. These Gifts are open to Pure Ones
as well as the Forsaken. Territory is critical to a werewolf:
this is an open list, and any werewolf can possess these
Gifts as if they had tribal or auspice affinity for them.
Each of these Gifts relates to a packs territory in
some fashion. Generally speaking, a section of territory is
considered claimed by a pack only if the packmembers
have taken some pains to make it so; packmembers who
say they control a street they havent ever set foot on
doesnt claim that street for purposes of this Gift. Only
land thats been patrolled, fought over, laid stake to via
the Howl of Ownership (see p. 50) or otherwise seen a
genuine werewolf presence counts.

L ay

of the

L and ()

This Gift gives the werewolf who uses it an instant

sense of how many people and spirits are in the immediate
area, as well as which werewolf pack (if any) claims it. For

48

purposes of this Gift, the immediate area means the

territory feature, as described in this book.
Cost: None
Dice Pool: Wits + Politics + Purity
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The werewolf receives faulty or
misleading information about the local area. The exact
nature of the characters mistake is up to the Storyteller
the werewolf should learn half-truths so that it is not
obvious what she is wrong about.
Failure: The werewolf gains no information. She cannot use this Gift again in this immediate area, until the
next moonrise or moonset.
Success: The werewolf gets a rough impression of
what the total population of the area is, though the Gift
does not differentiate among humans, werewolves, spirits
or other supernatural beings. The character also sees the
symbol and totem spirit of the pack that claims the area
if she has encountered the pack in the past she recognizes them immediately.
Exceptional Success: The werewolf gets a more precise impression of the territory features overall population.
She also sees the symbol and totem spirit of the pack (if
any) that claims the area, and if she does not know them,
she hears the packs name as a howl.

M inor Sending ()
Minor Essence flows crisscross every werewolf packs
territory. With this Gift, the werewolf may infuse one or
more Essence onto one of these minor Essence flows and
whisper a message for a packmate. The packmate can be
any distance away, so long as both are within the packs
territory, and will still hear the Gift users message as if
whispered directly into her ear. This message cannot be
tapped or intercepted.
Cost: 1 Essence
Dice Pool: Presence + Expression + Cunning
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The message fails to arrive at all.
Failure: The message arrives, but is garbled beyond
understanding.
Success: The Gift user is able to transmit a whispered
message up to 30 seconds in length. The message travels at
about 200 miles per hour, or about half a mile per turn, so
if the packmate is two miles away, the message needs four
turns to arrive.
Exceptional Success: As with an ordinary success,
but the Gifts recipient actually receives the spent point of
Essence as it chases the message.

Sense

of the

Territory ()

A werewolf can use this Gift to read the local Essence

currents, instantly gaining an idea of where all noteworthy

49
disturbances are. He can learn the location of any loci in
the territory, as well as the presence of any spirits of Rank
3 or higher or werewolves. This Gift only works within the
werewolfs own territory.
Cost: 1 Essence
Dice Pool: Wits + Politics + Wisdom
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Every werewolf and spirit in the
packs territory instantly learns the Gift users location.
The Gift user receives no information in return.
Failure: No effect; the Essence spent is lost.
Success: The werewolf learns the location of all loci
higher than in rating and all werewolves and all spirits
of Rank 3 or higher within his packs territory. The Gift
reveals only the presence of potential intruders on the
same side of the Gauntlet as the user; if the Gift user is
in the Shadow, the Gift will reveal only the location of
spirits and werewolves who are likewise in the spirit world.
Exceptional Success: The Gift reveals the presence of
significant intruders on both sides of the Gauntlet.

Animate

the

L and ()

At the werewolfs command, the land of his packs

territory itself rises up in defense of the pack and its power.
Cost: 2 Essence
Dice Pool: Manipulation + Intimidation + Glory
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The land rises up in rage against
the Gift user; the werewolf suffers a 2 to all Physical dice
pools for the next three turns.
Failure: No effect; the Essence spent is lost.
Success: Within the immediate area (the present
territory feature), the player may apply the successes rolled
as either bonus dice to the character and his packmates or
penalties to his opponents dice pools, for the next four turns.
The player defines the way that the local terrain rises up to
assist the werewolf; shopping carts may hurl themselves into
the path of onrushing foes, or a peaceful stream may become
a roiling river. At that time, the player must also define which
Skill will be affected by the dice for example, the pack
may receive bonus dice to Athletics as the ground tilts and

Chapter I: Drawing Borders

eases to help them, or the packs enemies suffer a penalty to
Firearms as barriers spring up in their way. The Storyteller
has final judgment over whether a particular Skill use is
appropriate; a pack cannot expect to gain bonuses to Politics
rolls in the middle of a forest, for instance. Once the Gift
user has defined the specific bonus or penalty that the terrain
will impose, the modifier continues to work in that fashion
throughout the duration of this Gift.
This Gift can naturally be used only within the
werewolfs own territory. The local area cannot benefit
from more than one use of this Gift at the same time.
This Gift may be used only once per scene.
Exceptional Success: The duration of the Gift is
extended to six turns.

Disrupt E ssence ()
Within your packs territory, you can cause spirits and
werewolves to waste Essence in powering their supernatural abilities. This may make them resort to physical
tactics, or stay out of your territory entirely.
Cost: 3 Essence
Dice Pool: Presence + Occult + Honor
Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The Gift effects rebound on the
user. The user cannot use any more Territory Gifts until a
day and a night has passed.
Failure: No effect; the Essence spent is lost.
Success: For a number of turns equal to the number
of successes rolled, any creature that is not a member of the
Gift users pack must spend twice as much Essence as would
normally be indicated to power a given ability for as long
as the creature remains within the Gift users territory. For
purposes of this Gift, a pack totem is considered to be part
of a pack (and therefore does not suffer that penalty).
Exceptional Success: The Gift user may also designate up to five entities that are not members of his pack
who do not suffer this penalty.

New Rites
H owl

of

Ownership ()

This simple ritual allows a pack to declare to the

spirit world that the pack controls a given patch of territory. The rite is simple, but it is easily interrupted. In this
way, it is designed to announce the claim to other nearby
werewolves. If those neighbors do not challenge the pack
shortly after performance of the rite, obviously the packs
claim is true.
Performing the Rite: The ritualist stands in the
center of a territory element that his pack intends to lay
claim to and unleashes a howl of dominance. Each of the
ritemasters packmates must be named in the howl, which
in essence exhorts any nearby werewolves to come if they
dare and challenge the ritualists pack if they believe they
have a valid claim to this place.

50

Dice Pool: Harmony

Action: Instant
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: Only the nearest spirits hear the
howl, and they are inclined to believe that the ritemaster
and her pack are weak and incompetent. For the next day,
the ritemaster and her pack receive 1 to all rolls made to
perform rites or influence spirits within the territory.
Failure: Only the nearest spirits hear the howl, and
they are unimpressed.
Success: The spirits within the area become aware of
the ritemasters pack and their claim.
Exceptional Success: The spirits within the area
are impressed or intimidated by the strength of the
ritemasters conviction. For the next day, all members of
the ritemasters pack receive +1 die to summon or banish
spirits within this territory element.

Rite

of

D esert R ain ()

Ordinarily it takes years for a Barren to heal and

become fertile again, if it ever happens at all. The Rite of
Desert Rain temporarily undoes the effects of a Barren, allowing Essence to flow through the area once more. With
repeated applications of this rite, and no small amount
of luck and hard work to encourage Essence to continue
flowing after the rites effects end, healing a Barren completely over time is possible.
Performing the Rite: The ritualist crafts a clay brick,
baking it in a kiln or with the aid of a fire elemental. Once
the brick is finished, the ritualist sets it on the ground at
noon and begins slowly trickling 100 gallons of water over
the brick. He may use an assistant to ensure a constant
flow of water. The water must flow for precisely one day,
and the flow cannot be interrupted for any reason (or the
ritual fails and a new brick must be made). When this
is complete, the ritualist and any assistants begin slowly
trickling Essence into the precise spot on the brick weakened by the water flow. If the ritual succeeds, the brick
cracks and melts into mud, and the Barren is broken. If
the ritual fails, it cannot be attempted for at least 28 days.
Cost: 1 Essence per roll
Dice Pool: Harmony
Action: Extended (40 successes; each roll represents
10 minutes)
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: All successes are lost; the rite fails,
and cannot be attempted on the particular Barren again
until 28 days have passed.
Failure: No successes are gained; the ritemaster or
anyone assisting the rite must spend one Essence.
Success: Successes are gained; the ritemaster or anyone
assisting the rite must spend one Essence. If the total amount
equals or exceeds 40 successes, the ritual is a success. The
penalties imposed by the Barren are eliminated for seven
days, at the end of which time the Barren reasserts itself.

51
Exceptional Success: Successes are gained; the
ritemaster or anyone assisting the rite must spend one Essence. If the total amount equals or exceeds 45 successes,
the rites effects last for 14 days rather than seven.

Besieging

the

S hadow ()

Uratha use this ritual to lessen the strength of the

local Gauntlet. This ritual came into being as a counter
to the activity of the Azlu, but has also proven useful
in counteracting a Gauntlet thickened by other outside
forces. Besieging the Shadow can be used to undo the
effects of the Fortify the Border Marches rite, for instance.
Some Forsaken disapprove of this rites very existence, as
it represents a temptation to make an area more prone to
heavy spirit activity in the physical world.
Performing the Rite: The ritualist creates a symbolic
barrier, and then destroys it by hand, tooth and claw. The symbolic barrier can be crafted of wood, stone, brick or cement.
Once the symbolic wall is complete, the werewolf must spend
days carving runes and sigils into it different sigils as Amahan Iduth changes her face. Every face of Mother Moon must
see the wall and approve of its construction: the werewolf must
spend at least 14 days crafting the wall, and it must be built
outdoors, where the Lunes can look upon it. The strength of
the symbolic barrier must correspond to the strength of the
local Gauntlet. Once the symbolic wall has been created, the
true ritual begins as the werewolf destroys the wall with tooth
and claw. The construction of the symbolic wall can only be
begun on the night of the darkest new moon.
Cost: 1 Essence per 1 of the local Gauntlet penalty
Dice Pool: Harmony
Action: Extended (10 successes per 1 penalty of the
local Gauntlet; each roll represents 10 minutes)
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: All accumulated successes are lost.
The ritemaster must begin from the beginning by building
another symbolic barrier before attempting the rite again.
Failure: No successes are added.
Success: Successes are added to the roll. If the total
equals or exceeds 10 successes per 1 of the Gauntlet
penalty (for instance, 20 successes in an area where the
Gauntlet strength is 2), the rite breaks down a portion of
the barrier between worlds. The penalty imposed by the
Gauntlet is lessened by 1.
This rite only works in areas where the Gauntlet is
unnaturally thick, where the dice pool penalty is greater
than it would normally be (as determined by the standard
modifiers on p. 250 of Werewolf: The Forsaken). This
rite cannot be used to create a positive Gauntlet modifier;
this rite cannot raise an area with a +0 modifier to a +1
modifier. This rite cannot be successfully performed more
than once on the same area; if the local Gauntlet is again
thickened after successful use of this rite, the werewolf
must find another means of reducing the penalty.
Exceptional Success: No effect apart from additional
successes gained.

Rite of
()

the

Border Citadel

This rite is a more powerful version of the rite Fortify

the Border Marches (see Werewolf: The Forsaken, p. 154).
Few werewolves know the secrets of this rite, and fewer
are willing to share its knowledge with others. The rite
thickens the local Gauntlet permanently, an activity that
can cause damage to the spirit world and draw much of
the life from the physical world. Most ritemasters capable
of using this rite do so only to repair damage caused by the
Beshilu or to protect the physical world from the depredations of a Wound.
Performing the Rite: The ritualist must erect a new
and permanent barrier within her packs territory. This
barrier does not necessary have to be in the same place
as the place whose Gauntlet she wishes to change, but it
must be within the packs territory and the chosen location must be visible from this new barrier. The barrier can
be nearly anything: a chain-link fence, a brick-and-mortar
wall, a jail cell. The barrier must be a physical barrier, and
it must truly interfere with the movements of mortals in
the area they have to walk or drive along a new path
as a result of this barrier. The werewolf smears a bit of her
own blood into the center of the new wall while speaking
words of warding and banishment. This ritual can only be
begun once per month, on the night of the brightest full
moon.
Cost: 1 Essence per 1 penalty imposed by the local
Gauntlet
Dice Pool: Harmony
Action: Extended (20 successes; each roll represents
30 minutes)
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: All successes are lost. At the
Storytellers discretion, a Barren may form in the local
Shadow.
Failure: No successes are gained.
Success: Successes are added. If the total number
meets or exceeds 20 successes, the rite is complete, and
the Gauntlet in the local area is increased in power by an
additional 1 penalty a 2 modifier becomes a 3, and
so on. This rite cannot be used more than once on the
same area, although Fortify the Border Marches can still
be used as a temporary augmentation of the Gauntlets
strength.
Exceptional Success: Successes are added. If the total
number gained meets or exceeds 25 successes, the effect
is so perfectly formed that the rite may be performed an
additional time in the area (allowing the werewolf to add
a permanent total of 2 modifier dice to the Gauntlets
strength). This bonus can only be gained once; an area
can never benefit from the effects of more than two applications of the Rite of the Border Citadel.

Territorial Merits, Gifts and Rites

Chapter II: Mapping the Land

52

Chapter

if wed let them, but this is our home. We can fight for it.
That seemed important.

The pack isnt here. Its just me, and I dont know what
to do, but I know I dont want this crazy shit tearing up
my house. I try to change, but he turns and fixes me with
a glare that freezes me in place. I try talking, but he
just runs over to me and rakes his dirty, ragged fingernails over my face.
Where is it? I try to answer, but I cant. I said you
kids could live here, as long as you didnt touch it. But now
its gone. Youre all going to die if I cant find it! WHERE
IS IT?

Land

And then today, I get home and theres a guy in the

house. Hes naked and its freezing out, but he doesnt
look bothered by that. Hes kicking in the floorboards in
the main room, and screeching, Whered you put it? Where
the fuck did you kids put it?

the

We havent had to defend it much. There was a pack

of Blood Talons that showed up one night, pissed on the
lawn and yelled at us. We came out and threw down,
broke some limbs, but thats really all they wanted. To
know we could take it. Actually, I felt pretty good after
that night. I kept thinking, Theyd have taken the house

Mapping

We were lucky to find this place. The house has stood

empty for six years now. Nobody knows who owns it. Nobody cares. Its out of the way, past the unused section
of Route 211. The plumbing doesnt work, the electricitys
off and, during winter, your piss crackles before it hits
the snow, but its ours. Its home.

53

Chapter II: Mapping the Land

blur from the shade

A trail is made,
Snowy words a rabbit writes.
Quick jaws a meal brings ;
With victory howl, wolf sings.

Jeffery Willis, Song

In a Werewolf: The Forsaken chronicle, the territory is a supporting character. It has history and probably
secrets, and given that cars, parks and even whole cities
can have spirits, one could argue that territories have motivations and goals as well. As Storyteller, its your job to
make the territory come alive in the minds of the players,
to give them the sense of familiarity (though not necessarily comfort) that their characters feel when patrolling
their own turf. This chapter is dedicated to helping you do
exactly that.
Note to players: Despite the title, this chapter isnt
meant explicitly for Storytellers. No grand secrets are
contained herein. By reading this chapter and taking to
heart some of the principles, you can help your Storyteller
and the other players flesh out the territory in which your
chronicle takes place. Pay special attention to the sections
on taking cues from players, and then give your Storyteller
those cues.

H ome Swee t H ome

If youre reading this book, youve probably decided

that territory is going to be major thematic feature in your
Werewolf chronicle. Its important, then, to make sure the
players care about their packs territory. If they dont, any
story involving protecting, altering or enhancing the territory will fall flat the players might go along with the
story, but it wont engage them nearly as much as it should.
So, how do you go about getting the players invested in
the territory?

The Territory Is

Character

As mentioned previously, the territory should be as

important a character as any other in the chronicle. Of
course, the territory doesnt have game traits in the same
sense as a werewolf does, and even though spirits within
(or of) the area might have direct motives and goals the
territory as a whole does not. The main way in which a
territory is a character is that the territory plays a role
within the chronicle. Therefore, the first thing to consider
is what that role entails. Some possible roles for the territory:

The Goal
The characters know they want their own turf and
have settled on the territory they wish to claim. The
challenge, however, comes in actually doing so. Maybe
other Uratha already claim the land why, then, do the

54

of the

Nigh t

characters want it? Do they really want the land or do

they just want to oust the current residents? Perhaps the
territory plays host to no werewolves at all, but has a thick
vampire population. Is that ever going to cause a problem
for the pack?
Maybe the acquisition of the territory, as far as moving in, marking it with some tags and making sure that
any local street gangs capitulate isnt really a problem.
Perhaps the territory holds some deeper problems. These
can be spiritual, of course, but might also be completely
mundane if someone makes an archeological find in
the packs territory, are the characters going to let people
dig big holes in their turf? Can the characters stop them?
If the territory is the goal of a chronicle (or at least a
story), it behooves you to detail the borders of the land but
let things get more mysterious as the pack moves farther
in. The characters should know what the edges of the turf
look like, who hangs out there and probably have some
idea of the spiritscape. As the characters venture away
from those borders, though, they should be exploring new
turf, and thats dangerous.

The Refuge
The packs territory can be a place where they are
safe. Territories like this should be small, because, in the
World of Darkness, safety is an extremely rare commodity.
In fact, a safe haven of any kind might seem counter to
the themes of Werewolf, but consider that if the characters truly are safe within their territory, they must work to
remain that way. Letting a rival or enemy see where they
make their homes is dangerous in the extreme, because
doing so opens the territory up for invasion. Keeping a refuge secure requires more than just physical security, which
werewolves are usually quite capable of providing. Keeping
a refuge secure requires making sure that no one is spying
on the territory from nearby vantage points and requires
keeping the Gauntlet strong enough that spirits cant just
come bursting in, but still being able to peek across at the
Hisil occasionally. This, in turn, means keeping an eye
out for shartha, since both the Azlu and the Beshilu have a
vested interest in the strength of the Gauntlet.
If the territory includes a locus, the pack has even
more to worry about. Spirits congregate at loci to feed,
both on the Essence given off by the locus itself and on
other spirits that cluster near it. If the pack can nudge the
spirits into a kind of equilibrium, so that weak spirits feed
and are fed upon and more powerful spirits dont feel the

55
need to cross into the material world, the characters can
keep their refuge peaceful. That, of course, doesnt stop a
nomadic pack from discovering the locus, draining it dry
and thus upsetting this equilibrium.

The Dark Secre t

A territory can play the role of the mysterious secret
in a chronicle quite easily. Consider the particulars,
though, of what that means. Does the territory contain
the secret? Such a situation might involve a locus that
plays host to a particularly powerful and dangerous spirit,
perhaps one with ties to the Maeljin. The secret might involve some bleak local history on the part of the Uratha,
or could be something frighteningly relevant for the
werewolves in the area, such as a nest of Azlu. A character
within the territory can likewise have such a secret (Pure
spy, Bale Hound, deserter from an existing pack and so
on), but this removes focus from the territory.

Story Hook
The Concrete Grave
The territory is a few square blocks in the
city that some few Uratha in surrounding areas
know as the Concrete Grave. Back when that
section of the city was being built, several
packs of Uratha fought each other. Many of
them entered Kuruth, with the result that when
the dust finally settled every pack had lost at
least one member. In shame over murdering
the People, the survivors buried their dead
beneath what would become the foundations
of buildings and the streets of the city. Those
Uratha still live, but never speak of the Concrete
Grave, except occasionally to each other.

In such cases, the dark secret should be tied into the

history and culture (human or werewolf) of the area, but it
is possible to resolve the secret without completely changing the territory. What if, on the other hand, the territory is the secret? What if the characters have discovered
a strip of land that isnt supposed to exist? Due to errors
by the local government, the land doesnt appear on any
official maps. No people live there, making it a perfect
hiding and resting place for a pack of werewolves. To what
lengths will the pack go to keep the area secret?
Consider, too, the relationship of the characters to
the territory and to the secret. Are they protecting the
secret from discovery? Is the secret something that they
suspect but need to uncover? Is the secret something that
they might simply happen across when investigating the
territory? If other Uratha already claim the territory, perhaps the secret is something that helps them in doing so
or something that they would die to protect.

Know

the

Territory

Whether the territory is a real place or a fictional

construct, you need to know the territory well. That
doesnt mean you have to know the history forward and
backward, remember every street corner and become
expert in the local laws. This means that you need to have
a sense of how the area feels, what defines it and what
would make for the best places to insert the supernatural.
Dont choose as the chronicles setting an area that you
find boring or annoying; choose an area with a milieu and
an atmosphere that is appropriate to the stories you want
to tell. This isnt just a matter of choosing the right city.
Cities have different neighborhoods within them that lend
themselves to different types of chronicles, and thats not
even considering using the suburbs or outlying rural communities (which many cities have) as potential backdrops.
Most cities have web pages, usually devoted to drumming up tourism. That means that the most interesting
sites and pieces of history are collected in one place. It also
means that the city is presented in a good light, which
in turns means youll need to deepen the shadows a bit.
Still, spending a little time online can usually show you
how the citys inhabitants perceive themselves and their
home, and that, in turn, goes a long way toward helping
you portray these people. Also, if you can find a copy of
the local paper (some cities have their papers online), you
can find out through the editorial pages what is important
to the people of the city and how they respond to issues of
the day.
Another good step in preparing to use a territory in
your chronicle is to learn what kinds of flora and fauna are
common to the area. Is there an endangered species that
thrives only in the region? An introduced species wreaking havoc on the ecosystem? What animals do residents
commonly see in their backyards or perched on their
roofs? What plants thrive there, and what weeds? Knowing
this sort of thing helps you to populate the spirit world in
more detail. Rather than just saying snake-spirit, you can
describe the dark scales and faint yellow stripe of a garter
snake or the colored bands of a coral snake. Likewise, an
introduced species that is doing lasting harm to the areas
biodiversity might come across in the spirit world as omnipresent, always hungry but just a bit out of place. Such
spirits, removed from their usual homes, try to fit in as best
they can, and that means eating whatever crosses their
paths to assimilate themselves into the local spiritscape.
If you know what creatures and plants are likely to upset
local ecological balances (rodents are historically good at
this kind of thing, as are snakehead fish and zebra mussels), you can present their spirits accordingly.

H ome Turf
The absolute best way to get a feel for an area is, of
course, to live there. If you live in Ohio and want to set
your chronicle in England, of course, this probably isnt
possible, but you might consider the possibility of setting

Know the Territory

Chapter II: Mapping the Land

the chronicle in Ohio instead. Almost every city and
region in the world has story potential for Werewolf; its
simply a matter of adding the supernatural to the mundane. Try driving around your town (or better yet, riding
a bus or a subway, or walking, as these allow you to easily
take notes) and observing various areas as a visitor would.
You might know why the statue of the town founder is
holding a scroll and a pen, but what might a visitor assume? If you didnt live there, would you be able to tell at
what point neighborhoods changed from high-income to
ghetto? In some areas, this can happen in the space of a
block. Look for landmarks that werewolves might consider
good territory border markers and places that the Uratha
might look at as neutral territory. If youve got a camera
or are willing to spend a few dollars on a disposable, take
some pictures to act as visual aids during game sessions.
Another great resource is the library. Most cities have
a local history section, and, unlike a citys website, these
books arent usually shy about revealing the dirtier history
of an area. In fact, it isnt uncommon for authors to compile accounts of murders, robberies, political scandals and
even ghost stories of a city for publication.
The biggest advantage in setting a chronicle in your
hometown is that doing so gives the players a good feeling
of familiarity with the area. They can easily picture their
characters as part of the territory, and if they need inspiration for how the pack might interact with an area, they
can take a day trip around town for it. People whom you
and your players know might even serve as the basis for
Storyteller characters, including those whom the characters have as Allies, Contacts, Retainers or Mentors.
The problem with this approach, however, is that
familiarity can breed contempt. Some people dont like
their hometowns and have trouble feeling any attachment
to them a far cry from the fierce territoriality of the
Uratha. Likewise, some players feel strange about interacting with something so familiar in the context of a Storytelling game. They would rather escape to somewhere new,
exciting and exotic, and thats not an unfair desire.

Far From H ome

Rather than set your chronicle in an area you know
well, you might want to pick a setting that feels compelling for whatever reason. If you live in a big city but the
notion of werewolves just screams rural to you, a more
rustic locale is probably the best bet. If you live in the
country but the idea of the Uratha chasing down urban
spirits and battling it out on rooftops and in subways is intriguing, there are plenty of large cities to act as backdrops
for your chronicle.
Setting your stories in a place with which you are
unfamiliar makes research all the more important. If you
dont have a sense of what your locale is really like, it will
come off as the generic city (or small town or suburb or
whatever). The players wont feel as though they have any
special connection to the territory as a whole, though they

56

might well connect to people, places and events within

it. To really get a sense of the packs connection to its
territory, though, you need to make Philadelphia feel like
Philadelphia. So, how do you go about doing that?
First, do the research described above. You dont need
to become an expert or a historian. Cherry-pick items and
locales that make for interesting stories and seem indicative of the given area. Feel is more important than fact. If
you want to run a chronicle that deals with the Mafia and
the lingering spirits of the old Prohibition era, New York,
Boston or even Cleveland were all involved to a great
degree but Chicago is iconic.
Another possibility is to find books, television shows
and movies that are set in the region. A good novel expresses the feel of the setting as well as tells the story, but
movies have the advantage of being visual and incorporating music, lighting and other such immersive considerations. Be aware, of course, that most movies are shot
in California or Canada, regardless of where they are set,
but if you can find a movie set in your chosen region and
shot on location, you can get a good sense of how that city
really looks.
Visiting the area might also be possible, if its not too
far away from your location. As stated previously, take pictures, take notes and talk to locals to find out the tidbits of
information that tourist books dont mention.

W hole Cloth
Another option, of course, is to make up the locale.
Movies, books and comics do this often, because its often
easier to make up a city than to keep abreast of whats going on in the real world and because then the creators can
alter or even destroy the city without causing outcry from
the real-world inhabitants. If you go this route, you need
to answer all of the questions presented in this chapter
concerning the territory, and also consider a few others.
What, for instance, is the main industry of the area?
Is it a small town in which most of the citizenry work in
a factory or mill, or a bustling metropolis built on a given
industry (steel, coal or shipping, for instance)? What is the
rough population of the city, and what are the dominant
ethnicities? You might also consider what the religious
and cultural breakdowns of the city are, especially if the
characters are native to the area.
Are there universities, and if so, how many and of
what quality? How old is the city and how does its history
fit in with that of the country? What occult secrets lie
buried beneath the city (this being the World of Darkness,
there should be some such secrets)?
What is the overall tone of the city? Is it dark, brooding
and gothic or deceptively bright and cheery? Do the citizens
smile to each other but nurse deep-seated loathing for a
given type of citizen (blacks, gays, Native Americans, etc.)?
Is the city a hotbed of liberalism or a staunchly conservative
community? These questions will help you determine the
spiritscape of the city, what types of loci it boasts and the

57
general mindset of the citizens (which is important if some
of them discover werewolves in their midst)?

Le t

the

Players D efine I t

After youve presented the setting and decided what

role the territory is going to play in the chronicle, its time
to get the players involved. The questions on pp. 7071 of
Werewolf: The Forsaken provide a good road map toward
fleshing out the individual characters and their relationship as packmates, but dont focus much on the territory.
Thats deliberate, of course: not every pack controls a territory, and so not every troupe requires that kind of focus.
Have the players consider the following questions
about their packs territory (or lack thereof):
Do they already claim the territory? Is the turf
acknowledged as theirs? By whom (see the discussion on
territory and other Uratha later in this chapter)? How did
the characters come by the territory? It makes for a very
different story if the characters are the only Uratha in
the city and claim the territory simply because they live
there than if the city is home to many packs all scrambling for the best piece of land. Did the pack take their
territory from another group of werewolves? If so, where
are those werewolves now? Do they harbor the desire for
revenge? Were they Forsaken or Pure?
Do they have eyes on a territory? If the pack
doesnt currently claim a territory, do they want one? Do
they know which one they want? Does it already boast a
werewolf pack? If so, why are the characters vying to take
it over rather than find their own? Do they bear a grudge
against the current owners or is that territory just so desirable that the pack cant resist? Why is it that desirable?
Does it contain a powerful locus with a resonance appropriate to the packs totem? Do one or more members of the
pack have family living in the territory? Was it traditionally the domain of the Pure and the pack simply wants to
send a message to the Anshega by taking it away?
Not claiming a territory raises other questions, of
course. Where does the pack live? Are they nomadic?
Squatters? Do they still live like humans, maintaining
their own residences?
How does/will the pack enforce their territorial
claims? If the pack already has a territory, they need to find
ways to let visiting Uratha know where the boundaries are.
If the pack plans on taking a territory, the same problem applies. How do the characters set these boundaries? Does the
pack have a tag that they spray paint onto buildings in
their territory, indistinguishable from normal gang graffiti
unless the reader understands First Tongue? Does the packs
Ithaeur bind or bribe spirits to watch the borders periodically, or recruit wolf-blooded humans to do so (either is
dangerous, both for the pack and for the guard involved)?
Certain Gifts and rites help to demarcate these
boundaries, but Gifts and rites are temporary solutions
unless backed up by constant effort. The pack can patrol
the borders of its territory, of course, but cant do so

ceaselessly. Besides, werewolves are proactive creatures by

nature they might be protective of their territory, but
that instinct combines with an (arguably stronger) need
to hunt. Protecting a territory, therefore, might involve
tracking down and killing nearby threats preemptively.
Are the characters lifelong residents? If the characters have lived in the area all their lives, how do they
react to the knowledge that the supernatural has always
been around them? Are they prepared to cope with seeing
the truth of their old haunts, and with the damage they
might inflict upon those haunts during the course of their
activities as Uratha? Are there people in the area who know
the characters and can recognize the changes in them (and
thus inadvertently help the characters enemies)?
Consider how the area might be confusing to new
arrivals. What little quirks of the region might be disquieting, annoying or just strange to them? When dealing with
humans and the mundane world, this might simply be a
matter of knowing what part of town locals mean when
they say the Neck or Little Five. When dealing with the
more dangerous realities of the World of Darkness, however,
knowing your way around is a matter of life and death.

Anecdotes
A good way to give the players some say about the
territory (and to let them do some of your work for you) is
to ask them to come up with stories, anecdotes and rumors
about the area. You can do this in many different ways:
Hot seat: Put each player on the spot and ask him
questions regarding his characters relationship with the
area. Use more specific questions than the ones presented
above, though. Some suggestions: What is your characters
favorite place to eat? Where does your character never go
alone if he can help it? What was your characters favorite
nightspot or hangout before the Change? Does he still go there?
Dont let a player answer more than two or three
questions before switching, and try to avoid posing all of
the same questions to all of the players (though keeping
one question the same across the board is a good idea,
because it not only fleshes out the territory but gives you
some sense of the differences between characters).
Start a rumor: Have each player come up with
a rumor, urban legend or weird story that her character
heard, relating to the territory. Encourage stories that are
related to places rather than people. People are mobile, but
if the story is about a barbershop where by paying an extra
$20 you can get a special jar in which to keep your hair,
the characters can theoretically go visit that spot.
Write down the rumors that the players come up with
so that you can work them into stories later on. Encourage
the players to keep the rumors non-specific, but visceral. I
hear an Azlus hanging out by the old mill limits the type
of story you can tell considerably. I heard that nobody
who lives near the old mill can keep pets unless theyre
strictly indoors they just disappear allows the Story-

Let the Players Define It

Chapter II: Mapping the Land

teller a great deal of leeway in creating the true inhabitant
of the building.
Remember when? If the characters are local and
entered their First Changes in the area, their sudden and
brutal transition into the world of the Uratha should make
for some interesting stories. Have each player revisit the
site of her characters First Change and consider what happened between then and the start of the chronicle. What
damage remains, if any? What about in the Hisil? Do any
of the people nearby remember the night Anna disappeared or something similar? Yes, the Lunacy offers some
protection for eyewitnesses, but a neighbor sat huddled in
his apartment listening to the sounds of a newly Changed
werewolf feasting next door probably still hears them in
his nightmares.

Ground

the C hronicle
in the Se t t ing

After going through all of these steps, you should

have a fairly solid idea of the territory, its role in the
chronicle and the characters relationship with the territory. Now consider what else might be present and how
you can integrate the Storyteller characters and the players characters into the ongoing chronicle.

O ther Uratha
You dont need to write up character sheets for each
and every werewolf in the area, but you should make a list
of any packs that the characters might meet and include
the names, auspices, tribes and rough power levels of
their members. You can use the characters provided in
the Rockies Appendix of Werewolf: The Forsaken as
a yardstick. A young pack might be made of characters
comparable to Moriarty, while a pack meant as foils, mentors or rivals to the players pack might be more like New
Hope or Jagged Skys pack. When creating these packs,
consider how long they have been in the area, what their
relationship with the territory is and, if they claim their
own turf, how they go about defending and patrolling it.
In fact, most of the questions and considerations in the
section above should be applied to important Storytellercontrolled packs as well. You might consider thinking up
a few rumors or stories ahead of time, just so a pack has
something interesting to tell the players pack. The rumor
doesnt have to be anything related to the ongoing chronicle, but if the players decide the rumor sounds interesting
and follow up, you need to be ready to tie it back into the
story or let it play out into an interesting chapter.

R umors

and

Chatter

You can use Storyteller characters relating rumors and stories to the pack as a way to
further the plot of the chronicle, or to simply
give the players a hint of what else is out there.

58

Theres always the possibility, too, that the

Storyteller character in question is lying, deluded
or misremembering what he saw. Thats the
danger of urban legends once we tell the story
enough, we start to think it happened to us,
even if we originally heard it from a friend of a
friend. This kind of telephone game can occur
among werewolves, too.
When designing these rumors, dont worry
about the truth. Instead, consider what the witness actually saw (or thinks he saw) and make
that the focus of the conversation. Not every
werewolf has heard of the Rat Hosts, so even
if a werewolf saw a man sitting in an alleyway
covered in white rats, he might not say to others
later I saw a Beshilu sitting on that garbage can.
If he describes what he saw, its not only much
more visual and powerful, it doesnt mislead the
players.
Here are a few rumors that Storyteller characters can casually impart to the pack:
Every half-moon, the Elunim sneak
through a locus and fly through this whole area.
Any Uratha the Elunim find, they measure his
soul. Im not saying how they do it, just that its
not pleasant. They look like a swarm of moths,
glowing moths, when theyre hunting. If you see
them, and youve done something wrong in the
last month, just run.
Theres a car wash downtown that you do
not want to go near. It washes everything away.
There used to be a Rahu around here who chased
something into the car wash. When he came out,
he was still in Urhan form, but hed forgotten
how to change back, or even that he was one of
us at all.
Id love to be able to help you out, but
youve got the Mark. No, I cant see it, but
theres an old Ithaeur, lives outside of town on
his own little patch of turf, and he said youve
got it. Hey, you want to know, go ask him.

Of special consideration is how the packs deal with

intruders and visitors. Do they attack and blood any
werewolf who crosses their borders before any kind of
negotiation can begin? Do they recognize that the world is
too small to be violently defensive of a large area, but defend their loci with tooth and claw? If a neighboring pack
follows a totem, what kind of ban does the totem place
upon them? An otherwise reasonable pack of werewolves
might be bound by a promise to their spirit to never enter
into friendly conversation with other Uratha until they
have fought the others once. Subtler spirits have more
insidious bans, of course a pack following Fork-Tongue
the Serpent might be required to lie to strangers during
the new moon. What if the pack enters that packs territory on a moonless nights hunt?

59

Wolf-Blooded
Uragarum are sometimes considered to be part of a
territory. These people might not even know what they
truly are, but werewolves fight over them just the same.
Not every pack cares about having potential mates among
the wolf-bloods, but some packs are protective of their
human family. Remember, too, that wolf-bloods are often
resistant (though not immune) to the Lunacy, meaning
that if a wolf-blood lives in the packs territory she might
be able to remember a pitched battle between Uratha, or
stand her ground as the werewolves change shape. Wolfblooded offer subtle story possibilities, but its certainly
worth considering whether or not they share the characters turf.

Vampires

and

M ages

Werewolves arent the only supernatural beings that

claim territory. Vampires battle each other for prime feeding grounds, and mages have their own arcane reasons for
setting up sanctums in particular places. That doesnt necessarily mean that the Uratha are aware of these machinations. A pack might live next door to a vampires haven for
years and never know it. Conflict between these creatures
isnt a foregone conclusion. Indeed, contact between them
isnt a necessity.
If you do decide that vampires, mages or any other
strange denizens of the World of Darkness dwell in the
packs territory, consider why these creatures dwell there
and why its necessary for your chronicle that they do.

Every city has vampires isnt a good answer. Every

city might indeed boast a vampiric population, but why
should the characters in your chronicle care? Are they
ever likely to meet vampires unless you arrange it as part
of the chronicle? Why? What would a vampire gain out
of contact with your players pack? What about a group
of mages? The notion of studying werewolves might be
a motivator, but it might also (rightly) seem like quite a
dangerous proposition and not worth the risk. Neither
mages nor vampires have some sort of cosmic imperative
to search out and catalog every supernatural being in the
world (though some might make it their personal business
to do so), so what compelling reason would draw these
beings into contact with the pack?
Plenty of good answers to these questions exist, of
course. Vampires, mages and werewolves all have uses
for loci, and so conflict can arise over them. A werewolf
might have a personal grudge against vampires (and vice
versa). A coterie of vampires might be tracking an enemy
and start following the pack around by mistake. If you
own Vampire: The Requiem or Mage: The Awakening
and wish to integrate such characters into your Werewolf
chronicle, by all means do so. But consider what place
these creatures have in your chronicle, rather than including them just because theyre there.

Spirit s
How many loci an area contains, what kinds of spirits
they attract and how those spirits deal with werewolves

Chapter II: Mapping the Land

are all up to the Storyteller. While spirits are, as a rule,
hostile to werewolves, that hostility can take many forms.
Some spirits flee the Uratha in terror, while other spirits stalk them in hopes of freeing (or consuming) their
pack totems. Werewolves can form alliances with spirits,
but this is an uphill battle requiring work and probably
chiminage on the werewolves parts. In order for that kind
of work to pay off, you need to know how the spirits feel
about the Uratha by default. This ties in to several of
the other factors mentioned in this chapter, including
the spiritual history of the area and the presence of
other werewolves. If the characters take a territory
next to one claimed by a pack of Storm Lords who
treat every spirit in the area as a servant or a lesser,
the spirits arent likely to see the characters in a
favorable light.
Often, a locus is an important factor in determining a territorys desirability. You need to consider
how common the loci are. Since loci allow spirits to
slip into the material world, loci shouldnt be found
on every corner, but a large city might boast one or two
powerful loci and a handful of smaller ones that not even
the resident Uratha know about. Bear in mind, too, that
not every locus has a pack protecting it. Some loci have
no common visitors except spirits, while mages and even
vampires claim others.
When deciding how frequently the pack should
encounter loci, consider how much time you want them to
spend in the spirit wilds. Hunting in the Hisil has definite
advantages. Aside from the plethora of prey and the constant possibility of running afoul of powerful spirits, both
of which make for good stories, the spirit world takes the
characters out of the public eye. Werewolves can change
shape without worrying about whos watching and take
on powerful or dangerous spirits without inflicting
much collateral damage on their territory. Depending on the emphasis of your chronicle, you might want to
place loci strategically around the area so that your players pack is never far from a gateway into the Shadow. Or,
if you would rather the Hisil be more inaccessible, make
loci few and far between.
Whatever you decide about loci in the territory, dont
reduce them to generic checkpoints. Every locus has a
physical form and a resonance. Even if you have to make
up a locus on the fly, choose a resonance that gives your
players pause. A locus might be bloody, cold, putrid
any of those descriptors might make the characters
nervous about what kinds of spirits await them on the
other side.

The Totem Hunt

Not every pack has a totem, but the ability
to take a totem spirit is one of the most potent
advantages that a group of werewolves have.

60

61
Plus, coming together under a totem helps the
pack to establish an identity for itself, provides a
look at the packs dealings with the spirit world
and opens the door for the possibility of dramatic
conflict. What happens when the packs goals
conflict with the totems? What about when the
pack needs to violate the totems ban to accomplish an end? Also, all totems are spirits, meaning that they can be enslaved, destroyed and
consumed by other, more powerful beings.
If the players spent points on the Totem
Merit, they have already built their totem spirit.
They probably have decided how they found it
and gained its favor (or enslaved it). But if the
pack has yet to find such a spirit, hunting for a
totem spirit in their territory is a good way to
showcase the local spirit population and how it
relates to the Uratha as well as the particulars
of the territorys Hisil. As mentioned previously,
knowing the local wildlife is a good idea. If the
pack makes its home in Michigan, it is unlikely
to take Gila Monster as a totem, but Black Bear
might be a possibility.

H umans
Dont forget about normal humans when designing a
territory. They, after all, make up the most significant population. What are the people in the territory like? Hardened
urbanites? Simple country folks? Paranoid suburbanites,
who know each other only vaguely by sight? Are people
on the street friendly, curt or downright rude to outsiders?
Likewise, are the characters considered outsiders, or have
they been here long enough to know everyone?
Consider who the influential people are in the area,
as well. Whos the mayor of the city? What are the mayors
politics? Does he have an agenda that conflicts with something the pack might do? Influence can manifest in other
ways, too. The chief of police, county sheriff and district
attorney might merit some consideration, but what about
the animal warden? She and her staff are certainly going
to be notified if reports of wild dogs or wolves start coming
in, especially if the reports start becoming frequent. Medical examiners and forensic officials might also notice that
something strange is afoot if they are called to too many
of the characters battle sites, so its not a bad idea to give
names and identities to a few of these people. Reporters,
too, can be troubling, as can psychiatrists who notice
that just a few too many people seem to have recurring
nightmares about slavering wolves. Pastors, bartenders and
anyone else whom people talk to can learn enough about
the supernatural to be threats or contacts. If the characters are new to the area but a significant supernatural presence already exists, this kind of dynamic might already
be in place and the humans who are in the know might
actually come calling.

People can help flesh out an area even without knowing

about the World of Darkness or wielding political clout, and
the players should help develop these people. Maybe a player
decides that his character has as an Ally the man who runs the
junkyard outside of town. Now the Storyteller knows that this
junkyard exists and can consider how it might fit into future
stories. Such characters dont have to be addressed by Traits,
though. A character might have bought ice cream from the
same corner store every week since she was a kid, and watched
as the ownership passed from father to son. If something happens to that ice cream shop and to the man who now runs it,
that player is going to be invested in finding out what, because
her character knows and cares about those people.

The Evolving Territory

Places change, just as people do. Sometimes that
change is sudden and dramatic. A fire or other natural
disaster can reduce an entire town to rubble within a few
days. More often, that change takes place over years or
even decades, as political attitudes shift and the priorities
of the people living in an area change. Towns can move
as new development is concentrated in one area (the
north part of town, for instance) while another falls into
disuse. Anything that changes a territory has an effect on
the Uratha living therein, and, as your chronicle progresses, youll need to consider such changes.
This section discusses how to make use of a territory
during the chronicle, how to change the territory to fit the
ongoing story and how to set yourself up for future stories
with a minute or two of preparation.

Zero Date

In order to make the territory a dynamic and important

part of the chronicle, the territory has to change. In order for
change to be meaningful, however, you need to have a solid
starting point. Decide on a zero date for your chronicle,
including date, month and year. Look in your library or
online to find what was happening at the time, and remind
your players of important national and international events.
You can also find moon phase calendars, either online or in
various almanacs, which are handy for determining whose
auspice moon is currently in phase. You can alternately run
a chronicle without dates, with most sessions being referred
to somewhat obliquely in terms of time: two weeks later, a
lazy Sunday in late October and so on. This has the advantage of requiring less careful tracking of time, but the looser
bookkeeping also means that more questions can arise (wait,
if last session took place three weeks ago, shouldnt it be a full
moon now?). It really depends on your troupes style.

Then, Now

and

Later

Should you set your chronicle in the past, the

present or the future? Each has its advantages
and drawbacks.

The Evolving Territory

Chapter II: Mapping the Land

Setting your chronicle in the recent past
gives you the advantage of knowing whats
coming, in the real world at least. You dont
have to set your stories further back than a year
or two to gain this benefit, although historical
games certainly have some potential (but are
beyond the scope of this book). You can work
upcoming real-world events into your chronicle
with enough perspective to see how they might
intersect with your players actions and with the
World of Darkness in general. The disadvantage
here is that your players might feel that they are
limited by what really happened. Some players try to make sure that history happens the
way it should, while others go out of their way
to disrupt it. In any case, if you give the players
a chance to change the way important events
worked, youll need to consider what ramifications this has in the long run.
Keeping the date of your chronicle concurrent with real life gives the chronicle a sense of
urgency and allows the characters to experience
the same world events that the players are. This
can lead to some interesting roleplaying experiences, as events that seem strange or unlikely in
the real world can take on new significance when
viewed through the lens of the character. The
problem is that the pace can be hard to manage,
and you might find yourself taking large amounts
of downtime to stay current. Plus, experiencing
the world as it happens robs you and the players
of the perspective needed to make sense of the
events.
Setting the game in the future, even by a
year or so, allows you a great deal of freedom
in building your own world out of ours.
Unfortunately, since reality will undoubtedly
develop in different ways than you imagine, this
approach requires keeping tabs on what changes
youve made versus whats actually happening
so that the players dont become confused.

Decide, and write down, what is happening within

the territory as of the start of your chronicle. What tension is present? If two rival packs are fighting over a territory, what stage is this fight in? Have they actually come
to blows yet, or is the situation just festering? Storyteller
characters should all have goals and machinations. What
stage are these plots in? To what extent do they involve
the players pack? You should have a good sense of what
is happening in the territory as the chronicle begins. If
the pack is arriving in the area, then consider how the
Storyteller characters are going to respond to a new group
of werewolves. If the characters are current residents, then
work with the players to determine what irons they have in
the fire.

62

An important consideration when determining the

status quo in the territory is what recent changes have
occurred. What new buildings are being constructed?
Whats getting media attention lately? Are any workers
on strike in the area? Is the community reeling from the
loss of an important figure? Figure out what the mood of
the area is as the chronicle begins, and decide upon some
ways to exemplify that mood. Storyteller character actions
and attitudes are a good way to indicate the milieu of the
territory.

Story Hook Men

at

Work

A new building is being constructed in

the packs territory. At present, there is just
the skeleton, but even that looks forbidding:
solid, concrete pillars, thick walls and heavy
steel girders. The foundation doesnt contain a
locus, and yet the section attracts certain types
of spirits as though it did. Most spirits flee the
place, but death- and murder-spirits flock to it.
No ghosts are anywhere to be seen and from
the material world, everything seems normal.
Why, then, do such dangerous spirits haunt the
place? Perhaps the company constructing the
building is owned by the leader of a death cult,
and this structure will be used for sacrifice on a
grand scale. Perhaps the building itself is normal,
but the construction crew has uncovered
something that is attracting the spirits.

One of the most important reasons for determining

whats going on in the territory is that the players can
then choose to be proactive in changing their turf. Suppose the pack has recently claimed a stretch of urban territory. The packmembers take stock of the area, and you
tell them that a street gang has been dealing drugs and
committing armed robbery and petty theft in the area. In
addition, something is living in a burned-out building in
the center of their territory, and, judging from the stories
people are telling and the little bit of physical evidence,
the creature could be a werewolf. Finally, the characters
discover a small locus in the local elementary school, but
the school is undergoing renovation that might damage or
destroy this nahdar.
Depending on the packs priorities, any of those situations might merit immediate attention. The players might
decide that the possibility of a lone werewolf in their
territory threatens their claim to the area. They might
reason that the werewolf is no match for them (if it even
is a werewolf), but that the street gang has the possibility of bringing down police and media attention that the
characters dont want. Or, they could decide that the locus

63
is the first priority because, without it, they cant access
the Hisil. You, as Storyteller, should be prepared for the
players to pursue any, all or none of these story hooks.

Timelines
As you consider what the status quo entails, consider,
too, what is going to happen in the near future if the
players dont intervene. For instance, you might decide
that the city boasts a lone Hunter in Darkness Irraka who
makes his home near the packs territory. The pack meets
him during the first story, and can choose to associate
with him or not at the packmembers pleasure. You might
decide that he is going to be murdered by the Lodge of
Crows for whatever reason about a month (in game time)
after the chronicle begins, unless the characters change
the situation. How they could change it depends on why
the Crows have marked him for death. The characters
might allow him to join their pack, or they might drive
him out of the area entirely. The point is, if they do not
change the situation in some way, he dies.
Dont become too attached to any plots that you
set up in this manner, because players have a habit of
changing everything. Just have a general understanding of
what will happen in and to the territory in the absence of
action by the players pack. The point here is that the territory is alive with or without the characters actions. They
can (and should) become important within the territory.
The story is about them, after all. That said, the territory
continues to change and grow even if they do nothing.
That doesnt mean it should necessarily improve or worsen
due to their inaction, simply that the players shouldnt feel
that every single thing that happens within the territory is
the result of their characters actions. If the only significant events stem from their escapades, the story seems
too artificial and contrived. Also, if the players see that
the world continues on even when their characters arent
paying attention, throwing in rumors and stories that
dont relate to the chronicle directly but help to flesh out
the world is much easier. If the territory exists only to prop
up the characters, then the players often feel obligated to
investigate every hook thrown at them, and this can be
overwhelming.

E volut ion

of the

Territory

Keep the packs goals in mind, which means asking

the players about them often. Find out what their plans
are for their territory and what Trait increases they need
to exact those plans. For instance, changing the spiritscape of a territory might include performing the Rite of
the Chosen Ground, but this is a fairly high-level rite. Is
anyone around who can teach it to one of the characters?
What price might the person ask? If a player expresses
interest in having her character learn this sort of rite, or
in joining a lodge concerned with the protection or alteration of a territory (the Lodge of Harmony, for instance),
you have a great opportunity for a story. Dont waste it,
and dont be afraid to put the main events of the chronicle

on hold in order to pursue it (you might also be able to

work the main plot of the chronicle into such a story).
Make note of locations that the characters visit
often and what effect they have on those locations. For
instance, if the characters use a particular cornfield as the
starting point of a regular hunt (maybe the Sacred Hunt
described on p. 160 of Werewolf: The Forsaken, maybe a
part of their totems ban), how might this constant predatory activity affect the areas spiritscape? Predatory spirits
might start stalking the cornfield. The spirit of the corn
itself might grow somewhat feral, with the result that weak
spirits are snapped up and consumed by the cornfield-spirit
(leading to a very interesting magath). Spirits might start
avoiding the area entirely, weakening the area somewhat
and leading to sparse crops.
Keep a record, too, of people with whom the characters commonly interact. Names, occupations and descriptions are probably enough to begin with. As the characters
develop relationships with this supporting cast, though,
jot down any change in attitude toward the pack. If one of
the pack stops by a butcher shop to buy beef hearts once a
month, the butcher will definitely notice if that character
sometimes looks bedraggled or even bruised (uncommon
for werewolves, but it happens). If the butcher is especially
perceptive, he might connect the characters purchases
with a given moon phase. Anyone within the territory
who notices anything strange about the pack is a possible
informant, so consider who might look for information
about the pack and where that person might have the
most luck in doing so.
Chapter One includes a list of features that a territory might boast and notes on how to go about creating or
destroying those features. Consider this information when
planning the (d)evolution of a territory. While changes
wrought during a chronicle probably shouldnt cost (or
bestow) Merit or experience points, a Storyteller using the
Merit-based system for territories might allow players to
swap points around as their characters change the area.

Territories
Roleplaying

and

One of the biggest challenges in running a chronicle

in which territory and the defense thereof figures heavily is making sure the players understand the territorial
mindset of the Uratha. This section aims to help Storytellers and players with that aspect of Werewolf, as well
as deciding what effect actions in the story have on game
mechanics.

Thinking As

Werewolf

What does territory really mean? The werewolf

pack that claims a section of a city doesnt really own that
area, after all. The packmembers are simply patrolling a
small piece of turf and claiming the rights to hunt there,

Territories and Roleplaying

Chapter II: Mapping the Land

but that distinction really only means something to other
werewolves, spirits and creatures such as the Hosts. To
human beings who make up the majority of the worlds
population the fact that a pack makes its residence
in the area doesnt make the slightest bit of difference,
because the Uratha never let the humans know.
And yet, the urge to claim and hold territory is strong
in most werewolves. Uratha are not human or wolves,
but they have aspects of both species. Wolves claim large
hunting grounds in the wild, and werewolves share that
urge. Other wolves that enter that territory must defend
themselves, but other animals can come and go without
that sort of challenge (either because they are prey or because the wolves dont see them as significant). The same
is true of the Uratha and their territory. Any being in that
territory is either a threat, prey or unworthy of notice.
Humans can fall into any of those categories, of
course, but the throngs of humanity tend to be background noise to the Uratha defending their territory. Unless the werewolves do something to attract the humans
attention, human beings stay out of the werewolves way.
This is partially because the Uratha keep their affairs out
of human sight, but largely because people dont want to
know. To acknowledge such predators in their midst would
be terrifying, and, moreover, would require that humans
do something about it. Humans instinctively defend their
families and homes, after all.
Uratha, therefore, combine the urge to hunt with the
urge to protect their territory and their family (that is, the
pack). Werewolves are not wolves or humans and dont feel
compelled to protect either species, but might well include
a wolf-blood as part of a territory. Territory, therefore,
doesnt have to a place. Anything upon which the werewolf places value can qualify.
Note, too, that although a werewolf packs territorial boundaries are typically only acknowledged by other
Uratha and creatures with a common frame of reference
(that is, spirits, Hosts and the like), those beings are the
only ones meant to understand the boundaries. Human beings and even other supernatural entities such as vampires
and mages might notice overt marks of territory (though
probably not the spiritual ones) and write them off as
graffiti or vandalism or even occult symbols. These beings
do not know that a werewolf pack claims the area, and,
ordinarily, they dont need to know.
Most werewolves see themselves as Uratha first and
last. Young Uratha might still identify with humanity, particularly if they maintain their preChange lives
in some fashion and have living family. But among the
People, werewolves feel truly at home. They might see
another pack as intruders and as deadly threats, but that
other pack is composed of Imru, and thus requires a different kind of consideration than, say, a gang of human
thugs would. The werewolf pack can tear the human
thugs apart, but must exercise restraint when dealing with
werewolves. Killing other werewolves is repugnant. Killing

64

human beings isnt, necessarily. Needless killing, of course,

still feels wrong, but only because it is a waste of energy
and an unnecessary risk. Killing a human being doesnt set
off the same kind of moral revulsion that killing a werewolf does. Of course, a lowHarmony werewolf might not
feel such revulsion, and territories claimed by such packs
are dangerous ground. But even taking this into consideration, the Uratha world is exclusive, a microcosm within
the World of Darkness. Vampires and mages and other
such beasts might see that werewolves exist and might
identify with them insofar as they must hide from humanity as well, but such being will never be Imru. That doesnt
mean that they cant interact, even come to consensus. It
simply means that, to werewolves, only creatures that are
spiritual in the same way as they are truly understand the
world.

The Territorial M indse t

How can we (or the Storyteller) encourage players
to think as Uratha with regard to protecting territory? It
doesnt do any good for the Storyteller to tell the players You feel this way or, worse, You think this way.
Instead, consider the following points:
Keep it experiential: Dont tell players what their
characters think or feel. Instead, tell them what they see,
hear and smell and let them interpret the data. Learn to
describe situations in terms of sensation, including scent
(which forms the strongest emotional and memory links in
the mammalian brain, by the way), and link related ideas
together in this manner. For instance, if the characters get
into a fight with a horde of Beshilu near an oil refinery,
that sickening smell of gasoline is forever going to remind
them of that battle. When they smell the exhaust from a
truck or smell gas splattered on someones shoes, tell the
players what they smell and that it calls the squeal of rats
and the pain of their bites to mind.
Experiential memory works for positive emotions as
well, of course. If the pack claims territory near a slaughterhouse, the packmembers might come to associate the
stink of cattle with being home and safe. Visitors might
complain of the stench, but the pack barely notices anymore. People who live near train tracks experience much
the same thing. A visitor might find the noise of the train
whistle annoying, but residents find it soothing. The players and the Storyteller should decide what sensations are
common to the packs territory. Such sensations might be
worth small bonuses on rolls to avoid Death Rage, at the
Storytellers discretion.
Borders: Decide on the borders of the packs territory and what they contain. What exactly does the pack
claim as territory? In general, the greater the population
density, the smaller territories in the area will be. How
does the pack mark their borders? Is one member of the
pack in charge of this, or is it a duty they split? Is any part
of the territory expressly forbidden to other Uratha (again,
difficult to enforce in heavily populated areas)?

65
Get as specific as possible about what the borders
mean and how the pack controls them. If the players
know whats in the territory, they have a much easier time
thinking of it as theirs.
Territory as identity: As mentioned above, the
only creatures that truly understand a werewolfs territorial urges are other werewolves and creatures with
similar spiritual mindsets. Hosts and spirits of all stripes
understand why werewolves claim territories: its just what
Uratha do.
Players should understand that most beings, humans
included, just dont get it. Territory is important, on a visceral, instinctive level. At the same time, werewolves understand that all of their territory is, in a way, humanitys
territory. The Uratha have to share, but since they want
different things out of their turf than humans do (usually),
this isnt as painful as it would be otherwise. The point
here is that the desire for territory sets werewolves apart;
its part of being a werewolf. Vampires might fight over
good places to feed and mages have their own inscrutable
desires, but both of those entities are inextricably tied
to the material world (as far as the Uratha know). Werewolves have deeper concerns the hunt and the protection of territory are part of their identity. Is it any wonder
that they defend their territory so ferociously?
This also means that when a pack is outside of its territory, the werewolves dont feel comfortable. Away from
familiar ground, a werewolf never knows if she is about to
be ambushed by a native Uratha or a powerful spirit. She
doesnt know where the nearest locus is in case she should
need to enter (or leave) the Hisil, and she doesnt know
where the best places for traps and surprise attacks are.
The Storyteller can help convey this sense of unfamiliarity by using pure description rather than explanation. For
instance, the Storyteller might describe a building this
way: You smell the grease and cigarette smoke as you
come around the bend. Before you sits a brick building
with large glass windows and a dirty white roof. You can
hear the clink of silverware and scratchy music from a
jukebox inside, and the rumble of a motorcycle echoes
from the parking lot. Its fairly obvious that the building
is a diner or greasy spoon, but the players will probably
have to listen to the whole description to be sure. The
Storyteller can use this technique to strip the familiarity
from almost anything when the pack is out of its territory,
emphasizing the distance from safety.
Everything is a threat: Suppose the city opens a
free clinic in a packs territory. To the humans of the area,
this is welcome news. It means free health care, after all.
To the Uratha, though, the opening of a free clinic means
an influx of spirits that can gain Essence from such a
place (disease- and pain-spirits, for instance). A new clinic
means new construction, which disrupts the spirit world.
A free clinic means new people frequenting the area.
All of these things mean threats to the pack. Any of
the disease-spirits might grow powerful enough to infect

Uratha. Any new person in the area might be a Host

or Ridden in disguise. A disruption in the Hisil might
send more spirits flocking to the packs locus in search of
nourishment.
Does this mean that werewolves are opposed to
change, or that they actively attempt to stifle human progress? Not necessarily. Uratha arent generally concerned
with human progress except insofar as it affects their territory. A pack that claims territory in a city might encourage the city to grow, breaking new ground and expanding
into previously residential areas, because the area then
becomes similar in tone and content to the packs territory. The point is that anything that threatens to change
a packs territory (unless the pack approves of the change)
is a threat to that packs home.
Spirits are everywhere, and they hate the Uratha:
Imagine what it would be like to be surrounded at all times
by invisible beings that hated and feared you. These beings
cant usually touch you or influence you in any way, but if
they can find the right door, they can reach through it just
enough to give you a good hard shove. Now imagine stepping onto a subway platform knowing that. This is a simplified version of the way Uratha must live every minute.
Everything has a spirit, though not every spirit is
awake. But unless a werewolf exerts the effort, she wont
know what spirits are lurking about what and what theyre
doing (and even with the effort, its not easy to tell). If a
werewolf presents a spirit with the opportunity to hurt
her, the spirit will often take that opportunity (unless, of
course, its out of character for the spirit to do so happiness-spirits dont make a habit of inflicting pain). So,
Uratha try not to give spirits those opportunities, which
in turn requires the werewolf to know what spirits are
around, where they draw their Essence and what they are
capable of doing.
Claiming a territory, therefore, is a survival mechanism. It allows the pack to stick to a (relatively) small area
in which it knows the spiritual and physical landscape. If
the pack is thorough and smart, it can run off or weaken
the dangerous spirits and establish some kind of harmony
with the others. It all boils down to knowing what the
Hisil is like, and thats really only possible in a small area,
since the Shadow is both dangerous and always in flux.
Even in cities that only boast one pack, its not uncommon
to see these Uratha stick to a single neighborhood and
seldom leave it.

Territory

and

H orror

How does the notion of territory tie into the horror

presented in Werewolf? This section explores this question, as well as advising the Storyteller on how to bring
horror into stories about territory.

D eath R age
The inherent horror of caring about anything, a place,
person or object, is that something terrible might happen to

Territory and Horror

Chapter II: Mapping the Land

it. Werewolves add another layer onto this: anything that
a werewolf cares about is in constant danger because of the
werewolfs presence. Every Uratha is one Death Rage away
from destroying anything within arms reach, and he knows
it. How, then, do the Uratha reconcile this Rage with the
desire to keep, hold and protect a territory?
Harmony: The higher a werewolfs Harmony, the
less frequently he will fly into Death Rage. Keeping a
strong moral center isnt just valuable for dealing with spirits, it helps the werewolf control himself. As a werewolfs
Harmony falls, his territory becomes a more dangerous
place as he patrols it obsessively, looking for infractions of
his imposed rules.
Keep moving: Werewolves are hunters by nature.
The urge to hunt keeps them in motion. Uratha packs dont
(normally) lounge about in their homes: they spend their
time patrolling their territory, rooting out threats to it and
striking against what could someday become a threat. Constant motion reduces the risk to any given area, too. If the
pack is always on the move, even within its territory, people
and places therein are less at risk. By constantly seeking out
enemies or prey, the Uratha has something deserving (or,
at least, something that she doesnt personally care about)
upon which to loose her Rage.
Small territories are especially at risk from the Death
Rage of their werewolf protectors, since the resident
Uratha have much less room to hunt and tend to fall back
on the same areas more frequently. New werewolves are
often amazed at how much land a pack might claim as its
territory, before they realize how much ground a pack can
cover in a night.
Packs: A lone Uratha has no support system, nothing to fall back upon when the Rage threatens to overtake
her. Some powerful werewolves claim territory alone,
and packs tend to fear Uratha who do this. Any werewolf
skilled enough to hold a territory without the help of a
pack is a force to be reckoned with, and if such a werewolf
becomes a Broken Soul, the pack might not find out until
the loners madness becomes apparent.

Out side Sources

The horror in keeping a territory isnt limited to the
Urathas fear that he might fly into frenzy and destroy
something. Werewolves are well aware of what kinds of
creatures and spirits might stalk their territories. For Storytellers, what lurks in a territory can be a great source of
horror for a chronicle.
Obviously, any of the antagonists listed in Werewolf:
The Forsaken or in other sourcebooks can act as invaders,
infiltrators, outright attackers or subtle corrupters. When
something foreign and hostile enters a packs territory, the
horror comes from facing a foe in the home. The feeling is
disquieting and invasive. Although a werewolf pack should
know better than to ever feel entirely safe, even in its own
turf, an enemy presence still fills the pack with a creeping
dread. This is especially true if the invader isnt interested

66

in the pack, but is targeting the territory itself. If the pack

claims dominion over a large area, the packmembers cant
possibly patrol it all at once. Suppose, then, that a subtle but
ambitious spirit enters the territory and begins consuming
spirits that the werewolves find desirable. The pack probably
cant keep tabs on this new presence. In fact, until it makes
enough of a dent in the local spirit population to change
something about the territory, the pack might not even notice (one good reason for packs to be vigilant). By the time
the pack even realizes that theres a problem, the spirit has
grown in power and probably learned where to hide from
the Uratha. The pack might spend months chasing the
spirit down, and what might it do during that time?
Uncertainty is probably the best source of horror. Give a
pack of werewolves a target that they can see, chase and fight,
and you have put the battle on their terms. Even if an opponent is stronger than the pack, the Uratha can attack, retreat
and strike again, just like a pack of wolves taking down a
moose. But opponents that the characters cannot easily
identify and fight can (and should) frighten them. The easiest
example, of course, is probably spirits, because gaining access
to them requires a locus, which not all territories have. Fighting spirits is chancy, because they tend to be powerful and
deadly, and so much of the packs effort should probably be
devoted to finding the spirits ban (and reducing any damage
the spirit can do to them and their territory in the interim).
But spirits are by no means the only element of mystery and
horror that Storytellers can bring to bear on a pack of Uratha
and their hunting grounds:
Vampires/mages: These creatures, similar to werewolves, have their own societies, their own rules and their
own reasons for being territorial. If you have access to
Mage: The Awakening and/or Vampire: The Requiem,
consider under what circumstances these beings might
conflict with a pack of werewolves. Unless a given werewolf has a reason to know some specifics about vampires
or wizards, the Uratha have no more true information at
their disposal than normal humans do. The notion of a
bloodsucking corpse or a mortal who has sold his soul to
gain supernatural power should be frightening even to one
of the Uratha, especially because they do not know where
such beings fit into their cosmological view of the world.
Just remember that these races are not at war; a pack
of werewolves that finds a vampire hunting wont tear him
limb from limb just because hes a vampire, though they
certainly might take offense at another predator hunting in
their domain. Conflicts between supernatural beings should
be personal and local, not based on some race-wide hatred.
Other Uratha: A new pack of werewolves in a
territory raises all sorts of questions. What totem, if any,
do the newcomers follow? Perhaps they have inadvertently
taken a Lune totem and are destined for madness and
violence. Are they paragons of Harmony or one step away
from becoming Ziir? Are they Pure warriors or proselytizers, or Bale Hound spies? Do they belong to some obscure
lodge with a mysterious and perhaps dangerous agenda?

67
Xenophobia, the fear of strangers, is alive and well
in Uratha society. When one pack intrudes on anothers
territory, the result isnt usually outright combat, but this
is because jumping directly into a fight with an unknown
pack can be suicide. And besides, although no Uratha
wants to admit it, if a pack shows up in ones territory it
might because something is very wrong and the resident
pack doesnt even know it yet.
The invading werewolves might be in the territory
for quite a while before the characters notice them. The
resident Uratha might notice scent marks betraying the
visitors presence, and then notice that the marks are at
least a week old. What have the newcomers been doing during that time, and how have the characters missed them?

Story Hook The Vagabond

A strange werewolf arrives in the packs
territory. He doesnt travel with a pack, and, in
fact, seems extremely uncomfortable around
the characters. He is dirty, disheveled and almost
incapable of blending in with humans. He seems
extremely weak, however he coughs up blood
and can barely walk without a cane. Yet, if a
Rahu uses the Warriors Eye on him, she realizes
that he is capable of killing the pack easily if he so
desires.
The werewolf is more in touch with the
spirit world and his own Uratha nature than the
characters will ever be (in game terms, he has
an extremely high Primal Urge rating, in the
8 to 1 0 range). He knows few Gifts, however,
because he has been out of werewolf society
for many years and has not earned any Renown.
The spirits follow him, feeding on the Essence
he bleeds. What attracted him to the characters
territory? Is he a Cahalith following a prophetic
dream? Is he a Ziir, trying to complete some
task that he only half-remembers? Is it possible
to bring him back to full health and sanity? Is
that wise?

Ghosts: A human being who stands up to a

werewolf in combat is, in all probability, going to die. But
humans dont always disappear after death. Ghosts are
different from the spirits with which werewolves normally
deal ghosts dont understand First Tongue, they arent
affected by most rites and Gifts (the Death Gifts being an
exception, of course), and they dont recognize a werewolfs
Renown. A ghost in a werewolfs territory should give
the Uratha pause, because it is a reminder that human
souls are enduring. Werewolves can be tempted to look at
humans as disposable and weak. But what if the ghost of a
human who died to feed a werewolf returns to spill her secret to her pack? What if a ghost has seen a creature such

as a Ridden or Azlu, but lacks the frame of reference to

understand what it knows? Try to describe a Spider Host
from the perspective of a person who doesnt even know
that she is dead. That kind of confusion and helplessness
is frightening, especially if the ghost in question was once
someone the pack cared for.
Unique creatures: The World of Darkness isnt
limited to werewolves, vampires, ghosts and mages. Any
creature from folklore, urban legend or the Storytellers
imagination is fair game. That means that the creature
that lurks in a packs territory might be something that
the characters have heard about in campfire stories but
never believed was real. Not all of these creatures need
to be spirits, Ridden or anything else that fits neatly into
Werewolf. The Uratha dont have all the answers. Their
cosmology is incomplete and doesnt account for everything in the World of Darkness, and encountering something that neither they nor any other werewolf they can
find can identify means that the characters are completely
on their own. That uncertainty and isolation make for
superb horror stories.

Internal H orror
The characters arent always on the receiving end
of horror, though. Sometimes the pack is responsible for
making the territory a more frightening and deadly place.
The ear-splitting howl echoing across a lonely rural valley
or through the quiet city streets sends the humans who
hear it running for home. A man walking to his car sees
something move in the parking lot shadows, and breaks
into a run. A woman wakes up in the middle of the night
to a scratching sound only to find the next morning
that the scratch marks are on the inside of her door.
Why would Uratha do these sorts of things? The
howls in the night can signify the loss of a packmate, the
triumph over an enemy or the beginning of a hunt. The
werewolf in the parking lot might be waiting for a contact
or getting the scent of his prey from one of the cars. The
woman who finds the scratches might be nuzusul, on the
cusp of her Change or her house might be home to a spirit
that the werewolves need to frighten away. The point is
that werewolves are monsters, and sometimes they terrify
the people living in their territories for reasons that have
nothing to do with the people themselves. The players and the Storyteller should consider what effect the
characters actions have on the populace. Humans very
rarely load their guns with silver and go hunting werewolves, but it has been known to happen. People only
get so scared before the fear turns to resolve, the terror to
righteous rage. Werewolves might make their territories
more horrific in an attempt to cow the people living there
(especially in less populated areas) only to have this plan
backfire with fatal results.
Actively making a territory seem more dangerous also
has spiritual dangers. While frightening humans isnt normally a sin against Harmony, if done too often or too cal-

Territory and Horror

Chapter II: Mapping the Land

lously it might well be considered torture. Likewise, spending too much time scaring people increases the werewolfs
time around humans, which in turn increases the risk that
he will enter Kuruth while they are still in arms reach.
Encouraging terror also attracts spirits that feed on fear,
pain and nightmares, and makes the area more hospitable
for Ridden created from these kinds of entities.

E vent s, H ooks
and Locat ions

The rest of this chapter consists of suggestions to flesh

out your packs territory. These come in the
forms of events and hooks that Storytellers can use to springboard
chapters or stories, as well as a
list of special locations that a
territory might contain.

Trigger
E vent s

The following
section lists events
and occurrences that
characters can witness
while they are patrolling their territory,
engaged in other
business (which
raises questions of
priorities) or simply
going about their
lives. For the most
part, the list doesnt
explain the truth or
the backstory to the
event, just what the
characters would
see. This allows
you to tie these
events easily into your
chronicle. Likewise, if
you need to shake things up in your
chronicle, pick 10, list them in any order you like, roll a
die and see what comes up. The first 10 are fairly mundane
in the nature, while the last 10 are obviously supernatural.
Mugging. Variations: Gang-beating, rape.
Fire. Variations: Brush fire, inferno in office building.
Robbery. Variations: Burglary, hostage situation.
Car chase. Variations: Helicopter chase, foot chase.
Explosion. Variations: Shots ring out, massive car
wreck.
Gang brawl. Variations: Firefight, underground
boxing ring.

68

Character is shot (stray bullet, sniper, etc.). Variations: Hit by car, struck by falling object.
Corpse in trunk of car or inside house. Variations:
Body is being moved or altered in some way.
Lightning strikes near the characters. Variations:
Lightning strikes a person, lightning strikes a car and
causes it to crash.
Man is cutting himself with a knife. Variations:
Man punches himself in the face, squeezes a handful of
broken glass.
Spirit materializes, briefly, and then vanishes.
Variations: Spirit attacks a target once, spirit is a ghost.
Passerby stares at character for a
moment, then runs in panic. Variations: Passerby attacks character
in a blind rage, passerby starts
screaming at the character in
First Tongue.
Vampire feeding.
Variations: Creature
isnt drinking victims
blood but eating flesh,
vampire is feeding during the day.
Man vomits in
alley then stumbles away.
Vomit puddle is crawling
with worms. Variations: Puddle is on the
floor of a subway car or
taxicab, man collapses
and characters see worms
under skin.
The wind blows a
womans coat up, revealing a hole in her back.
Variations: Something is
living in the hole (cat, rat,
small grotesque humanoid),
something falls out of the hole
(ring, dead leaves, animal).
Glassy-eyed woman touches
a person; that person becomes glassy-eyed
and walks on while woman blinks and starts crying
in confusion. Variations: Woman touches character but
all character feels is a sudden pressure in his head, crowd
instinctively parts for glassy-eyed person.
Person sneezes into hanky and spiders crawl out.
Variations: Characters find the hanky crawling with tiny
black insects, man adjusts sunglasses and characters notice
spider legs protruding from eyeballs.
Footprints appear walking away from characters.
They run if chased. Variations: Footprints might be wet,
bloody, dirty, etc. Other detection methods broken
windows, snapped tree branches.

69
A persons reflection is markedly different from
him (different race, gender, age, etc.). Variations: Persons
shadow is absent or struggling to escape, reflection variant
only appears when viewed from the corner of ones eye.
Everyone who exists a certain building smells like
blood. Variations: Inside of building smells like blood,
peoples voices have an odd timbre after leaving building.

S tory H ooks

These are events that can happen when the players

arent around. Consider what the effect on the territory
would be on such an event, how it would impact the
territory and what evidence the characters are likely to
find when they return and start investigating. Unlike the
encounters listed above, the cause and perpetrators have
also been explained (or at least suggested).
Police Investigation: A crime is committed on the
packs turf (of which they might or might not have had
any knowledge), and the police begin the standard investigation. The pack can look forward to increased police
presence, expert crime scene works, yellow tape and media
coverage. How long this lasts depends on the nature of the
crime. Anything that could be labeled as terrorist action
of course gets ink, as does anything that could be labeled a
serial crime.
Unwelcome Visitor: A nearby pack chases a
dangerous spirit into the packs territory by exploiting the
spirits ban. The pack might even use the Bind Spirit rite
to trap it there. The spirit follows whatever impulses it
possesses. A murder-spirit, of course, encourages murder.
A spirit of lies will be somewhat more insidious.
Turf Rumble: A new pack decides it wants to take
the packs territory, or at least make trouble. The new
packmembers remove any tags or scent marks the pack has
made, either replacing them with their own or just leaving
the area blank.
Host of Trouble: The Gauntlet changes, growing weaker or stronger due to a Host presence (Beshilu or
Azlu, respectively). The shartha remain out of sight as long
as possible, knowing that the Uratha will kill them on
sight. The shartha also have a leader that keeps them from
leaving evidence as to their presence, so all the werewolves see is the change in the Gauntlet and the spiritual
activity (or lack thereof) that results.
Wrath of God: A fire, flood, tornado or other natural disaster guts the area. What has the disaster destroyed
and how will the characters cope? They cant hunt down a
fire and exact revenge, which might leave them depressed
or edgy for months.
Spirit Predation: All of a certain type of spirit disappears from the packs territory. Is a very powerful spirit
hunting successfully, or have these spirits just fled? What
does it do to an area if, say, all of the cat-spirits disappear?
Alternately, what if a ravenous spirit is hunting down any
spiritual entity the spirit can find? This leaves large areas

completely devoid of spirits. What if it targets the packs

totem?

H unt ing Grounds

Finally, the following is a list of locations in which

werewolves can hunt and fight that might be present in
your chronicles setting. Weve tried to present locations
that allow for interesting and dramatic hunts and, more
specifically, culminations of hunts. Youll have to decide
which locations are appropriate for your chronicles tone.
If the chronicle is dark and gritty with extreme emphasis
on the secrecy of the Uratha, having an all-out brawl in
a market probably isnt the best idea. Also included with
these locales are a few key details, for establishing the
mood of the area quickly. Some of these locations receive
treatments in Chapter One, but this section examines
them from a Storytelling point of view rather than as
features to purchase for a territory.
Any major league sports competition, from baseball to boxing to NASCAR. Most cities have a stadium
of some kind where their home team competes. A pack
could use a stadium for neutral territory after the stadium
is closed, making use of the open space, but staying out of
public view would be an issue. Details: (Empty) Scent of
sweat and beer, televisions left on to static, security guards
talking about the game; (Full) screaming fans, tailgate
parties, athletes shooting up before the game.
A landfill, trash dump or junkyard. Such places
are natural habitats for Beshilu as well as a wide variety
of spirits (and, therefore, magath). Details: Stench of
garbage, uncertain footing, needles and sharp glass in the
dirt.
A power plant, factory or refinery. Such places are
loud and complex, and many run 24 hours a day but still
have thousands of places for prey to hide. Details: Scent
and waste depending on the location, oppressive heat,
tired and careless workers.
An industrial park or quarry. Drainage ditches in
such locales can extend 20 feet below normal ground level
and be lined with concrete, making them superb places for
ambushes, meetings between packs or places for urban taggers to practice their art. Details: Stagnant water, rusting
machinery, rats and other vermin.
A cocktail party, banquet or other high-society
social occasion. Uratha in this situation must be careful
while it might be tempting to let Lunacy cover their
tracks, the people at such parties are rich and powerful.
Details: Scents of wine, caviar, liver and other rich food,
decadence of the idle rich (scents of sex and cocaine), immediate police response.
Rooftops, skyscrapers or cliffs. Even werewolves
arent immune to gravity. Fighting in such situations can
impose Dexterity + Athletics rolls to keep balance or penalties on attacks to keep ones footing. Details: Rushing
wind, approaching thunderstorms.

Events, Hooks and Locations

Chapter II: Mapping the Land

A construction site. Wide-open spaces if ground

has just been broken or already-built houses for werewolves
to stalk through after their prey. Details: Scent of freshly
churned earth (and whatever might have been dug up),
bulldozers and other heavy equipment, still-wet concrete.
A parking complex. An indoor parking garage can
be labyrinthine (of course, if its aboveground the character can just jump). Outdoors, the werewolves prey can
hide amidst a jungle of cars or steal one to escape. Details:
Puddles of oil, car alarms, seagulls.
A mine, series of catacombs or tunnels. Any city
with an old church might have a series of catacombs
underneath a cemetery. Natural caves and tunnels arent
uncommon, and, of course, larger cities have subways
and access tunnels. Remember that natural light doesnt
extend below the surface, and many such tunnels are too
narrow to assume Gauru or even Urshul form. Details:
Bats, deceptively deep pools of water, human corpses, odd
graffiti.
A school, university or playground. Nothing excites
more immediate, visceral emotion than ones children
being threatened, and, therefore, parents are quite likely
to be able to fight through Lunacy to save their children.
High schools have chemistry labs, and in the inner city
the students might carry guns. Universities often open
wide-open campuses, drunk, hedonistic students and
secret societies. Details: Screaming kids, jaunty music,
books.

70

A cemetery. Possibly a sprawling graveyard taking

up acres of land or a tiny postage stamp thats been in the
city since the Civil War. A military cemetery in which the
graves are simply marked with white crosses evokes some
powerful imagery, too. Details: Freshly dug graves, mourners, ghosts, zombies, scent of fresh flowers, chewing sounds
from underground.
A theater, movie or otherwise. Cinemas attract
large numbers of people, especially the multi-screen affairs so common now. Consider also drive-in theaters and
arthouse or even adult theaters fewer people means a
safer place to meet or hunt. Live theater venues allow for
falling lights and scenery, ropes holding curtains upon
and superb acoustics for howls. Details: Smell of burnt
popcorn, people making out in the rows, dressing rooms
smelling of makeup.
An amusement park or carnival. An obviously nonhuman Ridden or Host might get away with hiding in the
freakshow, and a crowd of people acts as good cover for
other prey. Details: Roller coasters and other rides, cheap
fried food, games filled with plastic and stuff toys.
An airport. Combines the elements of a parking lot
with ever-tightening security. Details: Planes taking off
overhead, armed soldiers as guards, people greeting each
other joyfully and saying tearful goodbyes.
A ranch, farm or orchard. Hunting in a cornfield
or through rows of apple trees has great visual potential.
A cattle ranch adds the notion of spooked animals and

71
angry (and armed) farmers. Details: Tasty domesticated
prey animals, scarecrows, scent of manure or rotting fruit.
A dog pound, animal shelter, pet store or zoo. Mundane animals are often terrified of werewolves, and might
chew through their cages to get away from them. Details:
Animals with bloodied mouths, animal noises (barks,
roars, shrieks), chaos as animals get loose.
A hospital or nursing home. An emergency room
might make a good place for the end of a hunt the
prey might duck into the hospital to patch himself up.
Morgues, likewise, add some interesting elements to the
scene. Details: Antiseptic smell, beeps and whirs of machinery, chaos, well-trained people falling under
Lunacy.
A public swimming
pool, quarry or lake. Water
can be terrifying, and
even werewolves can
drown. Bodies of
water at night can
conceal almost anything. Details: Scent
of chlorine or lake
water, sounds of roiling water, footprints
in the mud.
A club, bar
or dive. A crowded
club is a panicked
stampede waiting
to happen. Suppose
the bar in question
happens to be a gang
or cop hangout,
though? Details: Under-the-table dealings,
smoke, cheap beer,
jukeboxes.
A fish market
or farmers market.
Thousands of strange
smells, which probably make tracking more
difficult. One spilled box of fish
makes for dangerous fighting conditions. Also, depending
on where the food comes from, strange spirits might have

hitched a ride, too. Details: Movement among the dead

fish, scents of meat and blood, rats stealing food.
An asylum or prison. Werewolves might find that
their prey is hiding out in a correctional institution, either
as a guard, a prisoner or simply a stowaway. Breaking into
such a place is complicated, at least if stealth is a concern.
Details: Some absolutely horrific spirits, sadistic guards,
solitary confinement, scent of sweat, urine and waste.
A gym or health club. Barbells make interesting
weapons. Such places usually include pools, too. Details:
Smell of sweat, steroids, narcissism.
A museum or library. An older library with iron
shelves, huge hoary tomes of forbidden
knowledge and a cranky and
intimidating librarian
makes for an iconic
place to find information. A museum
has many dark
places to hide and
usually advanced
security systems.
Details: Bones (and
perhaps spirits) of
long-dead animals,
books that should
never be opened, smell
of paper, people whispering in the stacks.
A highway rest
stop or greasy spoon.
Rest stops can be small
buildings with a few
vending machines or
veritable mini-malls.
Greasy spoons might
attract a few regulars
who refuse to speak
to visitors or might be
common stopping places
for travelers. Either way,
the transient nature of
the places makes them good
features for hunts. Details: Bad food,
stale cigarette smoke, big rigs outside, truckers or bikers
spoiling for a fight.

Events, Hooks and Locations

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

72

Chapter

in the

Sand

up and out the door while everyone else is mostly

asleep; Tash sees me go out of the eye she keeps open, and I
trust her to remember it. I wouldnt have thought that sleeping with one eye open was anything but a weird exaggeration
back... you know, back then, when my body was as asleep as
my mind. But now Im awake, all of me, in both senses of the
word.
And I go for a walk as I always do.
Theres a new tag on the bridge, and not from any of the
established gangs. But its placed down and out of the way,
and the first thing I think when I see it is thats humble of
them.
Down at the corner, theyve left me my seat at the end and
the service is nice and quick. The guys down the counter are
talking about cats fighting last night. And yeah, I guess I can
see how that screeching those things did was kind of like a
cats if you were a ways off. Or trying not to listen.
The park smells nice. Thats a good change. I look across
the way where one of the women from the Towers is walking her corgi, and I cant help but smile when she fastidiously
scoops up the critters crap and disposes of it. She wouldnt
have done that three months back, back when the park stank
of animal shit and human piss and used condoms and all that
other garbage. Now it smells like... well, if you catch the wind
right, you can just about smell us. Its the sort of thing I never
would have thought humans could pick up on, and maybe they
dont even know that theyre doing it.
Theyre getting used to us. They dont want to think about
it too hard, they might not even admit it to themselves, but
they know. This place is ours.

Lines

Im

73

Section Title

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

Small Town:
Hood River
Overview

Columbia River widens here, and runs slow, if strong.

The sole freeway takes a couple of twists and turns, following the river through the region, which would slow
drivers down if they werent already slowing to take in the
beauty of the waters on one side and the majestic, looming
mountain on the other. Only the winds move quickly in
Hood River Valley, and they dont cause a lot of stir on
the ground. The people arent fast; even the speed of the
modern world hasnt been able to accelerate this sleepy
rural town.
But still waters run deep.
Werewolves have lived here for centuries, since before
Oregon was a state or Hood River a chartered town. They
made their territory not in the lee of the great Mount
Hood, but on the windward, where the wind carried seeds
to grow and the vast river worked with the mountains
runoff to make the mountain one of the most bountiful
places in the West.
But, most importantly, the wind blew ash away, for
Mount Hood was once more active than it is now. The
volcano vomited up tons of black soot and white ash in
those days, and where they settled, life died. Stories tell
that the Uratha of those ancient days forged unbreakable
pacts with the spirit courts of wind to ensure that they
would always blow the volcanos death away from the territory and the wolves, but the truth of this is uncertain.
What is certain is that there are strange things in
Hood River. Things that the Forsaken keep quiet and
under control, but the influx of population young population, active population is making that difficult. Some
say its impossible.
To most people who live there, Hood River, Oregon,
is little more than a rural town in a rural state. People
go to school, grow up, get a job and settle down to have
kids without leaving the county. Fruit, mostly apples and
pears, is the biggest industry; hundreds of acres of orchards
give the region a beautiful springtime visage and bring
immigrant workers and their children up for the harvest.
The towns inhabitants are mostly well-meaning. Many of
the elderly and idle spend their time in the regions four
Lions clubs, and most children participate in 4-H for at
least one or two years. Showing and selling animals is the
largest part of the annual county fair, and one that gives a
number of local kids their spending money for the year.

74

Its not the complete sticks, though, until one gets out
of Hood Rivers downtown proper. They have a decent
hospital, (small) law enforcement, the normal run of fast
food joints and a short series of local businesses successful enough not to close down. A 20-minute drive up the
mountain takes one to Parkdale. Technically another
township, Parkdale is still part of the Hood River county
and community, sharing the middle schools and the
single high school. Here, rural life becomes most evident.
Residents of Parkdale can get their gas at the small, nearby
market, but most locals keep a tank at least half-full on
their property. Trucks and other heavy vehicles, a fad and
conceit for most in the city, are real necessities here. The
snowfall can be heavy, and when it is, the runoff is even
heavier. Everybody here works for a living, and its not just
a moral decision for them to do so.
Also common to the Parkdale community is a strong
bond of blood. Some families roots are as deep as the
mountains and twice as thick. After generations and generations, these families have intermarried and, according
to the townies, laid claim to almost all the rural region.
Common jokes about Parkdales families revolve around
inbreeding, but the jokes are exceptionally exaggerated.
However untrue the jokes may be, some surnames are
ubiquitous throughout the region. Having so much family
so close makes reunions simple matters, helping Parkdales
inhabitants stay close and remain a fairly tight-knit community. Though the townspeople are not exclusionary or
unfriendly to outsiders, there is certainly a sense of being
out of the loop that, often, only a generation or two of
living there can fix.
Bennet Pass bounds the county on the south, but the
dominant packs territory finds its south end at the east
side of Mount Hood. High hills to the east and west of
Hood River make excellent natural boundaries, and no
wolf ever crossed the Columbia River to expand a territory. Before humans settled the region, the wilds of the
southern forests in the national park and the fertile earth
within in the valley meant no Uratha lacked for game,
and that hasnt changed much. Deer and other food only
occasionally visit the open lands in the valley now, but
there is still plenty to attract the Uratha to the untouched
forests around the mountain.
Recently, life in Hood River has begun picking up
speed. Tourists used to come in the summer to windsurf,
and the townsfolk were more than happy to take their

75
money. Now, the windsurfers are moving in, finding
niches in the area and economy where they can fit. With
them comes progress, new ideas and people who dont
know when they should shut up and go back inside.
Hood River is changing. New inhabitants call the
police when creepy things happen, and when the authorities do nothing, the new folk complain. Theyre starting
to affect others, too, people who grew up there but have
begun to wonder why they put up with the strange things
they do. Only Parkdale remains as it was, simply because
the inhabitants there refuse to sell. Hood River Valley is
in the middle of a social war: Parkdale is the headquarters
of the old families and Hood River proper is a flat-out
battleground.
Religion: Many of the people of Hood River are
religious, but it is usually a quiet piety. Only members
of the most evangelical organizations spend any effort
trying to spread the word among the inhabitants of the
town, most of whom are already entrenched in another
belief. One facet of small town life is that, while there are
significantly fewer people than there are in a city, religions
still have proportional representation among the populace.
They all want a place to worship, few of them want to
share and none of them want to drive an hour on Sunday.
So there are more than 50 churches in Hood River, supporting a population of little more than 5,000. A substantial number of the towns temples support no more than 25
to 50 members in their congregations.
Werewolves: Uratha of Hood River live, for the most
part, up in Parkdale. Its the highest place available in
the valley for a pack to live while still actually being in
Hood River. Living in Parkdale gives them the best access
to Mount Hood itself and the foothills around it, which
feature many opportunities for lone-wolf or pack excursions through the wilderness or up onto the lonely, snowy
slopes of the mountain itself. There are few roads that lead
directly to Hood River, and setting up camp in Parkdale
gives the werewolves the perfect vantage over the single
public road that comes straight over the mountain.
Before the population invasion, staying hidden in
Hood River was relatively easy for the Forsaken: they
didnt. Sure, they didnt parade around in Gauru form, but
they were visible and influential parts of their respective
families. After all, Uratha have been here as long as any
humans have, and Uratha are well-integrated into the few
clans that have been there since time before time. In fact,
Uratha founded most of those families, or at least co-opted
their bloodlines. One of the local (werewolf) legends
suggests that the old Uratha alphas set up the clan-like
structure of some families to strengthen the werewolf
blood. Whether that was out of pride or to defend the
region against evil is a matter of debate.
Today, its harder. The many new faces mean that
fewer people are going to recognize the werewolves faces
or their societal authority, and more people are questioning the way things are and trying to change it. More

wonder why those howls seem so close, why they shouldnt

let their cats out at night and why they cant build big,
brand new houses up in the vintage wilderness around
Parkdale.
Living in Parkdale can take some of the pressure
off. A werewolfs more troublesome urges can be concealed within the many square miles of forests, or at least
large pastures or farms. Acres and acres of apple or pear
orchards also serve to hide a werewolf, if hes caught closer
to town. And the community in Parkdale is even more
tightly knit than that of Hood River. Those in Parkdale
share the bond of living farther from town and growing up
closer, spiritually, to one another than the people in Hood
River whose homes were actually right next to one another. Parkdale is quieter than Hood River, and Parkdale
keeps to Parkdale, making it even easier for the Forsaken
to keep knowledge of their untoward activities from being
spread to the town proper.
Trouble: Hood River has never been a hotbed of
spiritual, physical or political strife. There are embers
smoldering under the surface, sure, but generations of
Forsaken have spent their lives keeping those fires banked.
Thats changing. Dark figures walk through town, disappearing before anyone gets close but leaving the unmistakable smell of sulfur in the air. Some orchards have poorer
yields than they did 10 years ago, despite new farming
techniques some apples and pears grow rotten on the
tree while appearing healthy.
Even the towns oldest inhabitants show signs of
unease, and the old ways are being forgotten or ignored.
More people than ever are willing to let a fire die in the
hearth instead of dousing it with water, long held to be
safer by the folk of Hood River. Only rarely does one see
a token of ice left on the doorstep or welcome mat during
hot nights.
And now, with the population on the rise due to
boom instead of birth, the town is waking up. New ideas,
new techniques, are seeping into Hood Rivers subconscious faster than ever before. People come in with modern business ideas and force the old inhabitants to upgrade
or close down their stores. Hood River has changed almost
overnight.
To the werewolves great surprise, some people new
inhabitants and old inhabitants both have begun
lighting candles, or even torches, and leaving them on the
doorstep at night. More people host bonfire parties with
their friends, and the fire department is suspiciously easygoing about handing out permits. Orchardists use smudge
pots, filled with a slow-burning concoction, to keep their
trees warm at night and stave off frost, rather than letting
the frost guide them. Some of the towns youths are flirting with arson.
This is wrong. The Uratha know that things
shouldnt be this way, even though they arent sure exactly
why. Truths are slippery things and hard to grasp; only
rumors and legends persist from the ancient times to guide

Small Town: Hood River

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

the Forsaken of Hood River. They have to hunt down the
secrets that their forebears failed to pass on, by interrogating the winds and forcing true words from the throats of
self-styled harvest gods. And the Uratha simply must put a
stop to the flames even if the Forsaken dont know why.

M oving H ood River

A small town such as Hood River is easy to uproot
and put back down someplace else. Certainly, some of the
aspects described above are locale-specific (the mountain,
the rivers, windsurfing as a catalyst of urban development),
but they are reducible to their core elements or simply
removable. All that is really necessary for a small town
with the same old secrets versus new minds ambiance is a
rural location where population has focused over the years
(a town in the wheat fields in the American Midwest,
anything away from the big cities in Canada, something
bigger than a village in rural Britain, a fishing town in
Mexico, etc.).
Give the town a quality that attracts a younger,
fresher, louder crowd (the new jazz sound amidst the wheat
fields, the best place for bungee jumping in Canada, a
reputation for brilliant and daring restaurants in Scotland, the beginnings of a Cancun-style-reputation in the
small Mexican town). Mix in a secret, something even
the werewolves dont know too well and the towns old
inhabitants know just enough of to say no more. Add a
smaller community, somewhat separate from the core, for
the werewolves to call their own, and its set.

H ood River and You

(S tart ing Out )

Similar to many of the homes, orchards and other

land in Hood River and Parkdale, this territory is one

76

most often bequeathed from an older pack to a younger.

Usually, the pack in Hood River gathers a small group
from those who experience the First Change nearby.
Unsurprisingly, new werewolves are closely related to the
members of the pack itself. As the dominant pack grows
older over the decades, it handpicks the werewolves the
pack feels can respect the land, the people and their
secrets in the right way. Most often, the packs choices are
native to Hood River, Parkdale or a neighboring, equally
rural township. Hood Rivers guardians shape the prospects for several years, then give them a small territory to
help them experience the sort of dedication necessary to
maintain ones own territory.
What happens next depends on the senior and junior
packs. Most transitions in power go smoothly, as is appropriate for a small and quiet town. The dominant pack
passes its authority on to the chosen successors
in a small ritual, handed down from the
very first Uratha to claim the land.
The older werewolves sing
thanks and glory to
Luna and share
final words
of wisdom
sometimes
nothing
more than

77
words of affection, but occasionally important messages
that they had been putting off. Then the young Forsaken
thank Father Wolf for his legacy, and perform the duty
of his first children. Blood of the old pack moistens the
ground, making it spiritually and physically fertile for the
new packs reign. This ritual occurs in the same place
every 30 to 50 years, depending on the Ithaeurs interpretation of the omens.
To the townsfolk of Hood River and the people of
Parkdale, the people who have been active in the community for decades disappear. People hear that they die,
become reclusive or just move to Florida, whatever theyll
believe. Their nephews and cousins, groomed for the opportunity, take their places in the Lions clubs and other
quietly influential positions. To the oldest families, who
know the truth in surprising numbers, its just the changing of the guard.
Occasionally, the elder pack grows insular and reluctant to pass on the responsibility, sometimes even chasing
off the younger pack the elder pack trained in a misplaced
effort to eliminate their rivals. In this case, the younger
pack performs the ritual themselves and spreads the old
packs blood by force. Once the blood is fertilizing the
ground, everything progresses as if the elders had stuck to
tradition.
Not all changes in authority are planned. Some
young packs choose Hood River, instead of being chosen.
Challenging the dominant werewolves in Hood River
without being prepared for the position isnt an easy task
in such a small community. Challengers may be able to
blood the towns champions and claim the territory, but
the townsfolk wont recognize the challengers authority,
even in the subtle way most mortals recognize the Uratha.
To truly rule Hood River, a pack must win it socially, integrating itself into the community and earning a reputation
of respect and trust. This isnt impossible; new families
move to town now and again and, if they stay, eventually
become permanent fixtures. It isnt uncommon (its actually almost unavoidable) for a newcomer to seal her bond
with the town by marrying into one of the bloodlines
thats been in the region for generations.
When it becomes evident to the pack holding Hood
River that their Forsaken rivals are triumphant, the old
Uratha accept that they are to pass the territory on to
this group. The old Uratha surrender and, surprisingly
earnestly, teach the new pack what it must know about
the land, and then perform the ritual. Sometimes, one
member of the old pack (usually the Cahalith) stays with
the new masters of Hood River to continue teaching
before completing the ritual with his death. Of course, not
all packs are so accepting, but most understand that they
must protect the town, remaining true to their territory to
the end.
Traditionally, the pack that holds Hood River is composed of Iron Masters, though their tribemates in Portland
or Seattle tend to call them Iron Masters in Darkness for

their choice of rural locale. While it is true that any pack

to hold Hood River must have a love for the wild, the Iron
Masters have the most respect for the local humans way
of life. In this case, the regions inhabitants prefer quiet,
relative solitude and comfortable aversion to change, and
Iron Masters have followed that path for generations.
Not every pack to claim Hood River is made up of
Iron Masters. Though thats the familial tradition, more
than one young Hood River pack has chosen another
tribe and still proven worthy of the responsibility. Blood
Talons may choose the territory, because it represents one
of the longest, most eternal fights there is. Bone Shadows
may come because not all spirits in the valley are restful
and sweet. When Hunters in Darkness take the town,
they ignore the small downtown and live in the wilds
and in Parkdale, only interfering in politics as it affects
them. Storm Lords might choose to hunt there, but there
are no powerful storms in Hood River only moderate
rains and snows so to settle there might be considered
a weakness. Besides, there is little there in the way of real
power.

Feat ures

and

A dvantages

Werewolves desire Hood River as a territory for a

number of reasons. Its population is low enough that a
single pack can control both the town proper and most,
if not all, of the countys surrounding countryside. The
town is well-situated: set in a valley, backed by a mountain and fronted by a river, only Interstate 84, a couple of
local roads that go over and around Mount Hood and the
bridge from Washington provide easy access to the area,
limiting its mortal growth potential and making surveillance of these access points a relatively simple matter. This
setup wont keep out anyone skilled at traveling through
the wilds, as any pack thats going to successfully defend
the territory must be aware.
Still, patrolling the territorys boundaries provides an
excellent opportunity for the dominant pack to don wolf
form and feed itself, hunting on the move. The return to
nature and opportunity for a Forsaken to maintain balance is incredibly alluring to those Uratha who dont need
the comforts and amenities of city life. The quality of the
hunt is even enviable in some areas.
Hood River werewolves can keep abreast of the news,
even if they avoid making any themselves. The same
winds that draw windsurfers bring spirits of wind many
leagues from the east and west. Werewolves who want to
can get information from them about whats going on from
anywhere along the Columbia River and often several
miles inland, as well.
Loci arent any more common than usual, but there
are a couple of note. Two of the regular meeting places
for the towns Lions clubs have, over the decades, become
host to minor loci, resonating with dedication and sacrifice. One is the major church in Parkdale, the other is a
small church in Odell (a tiny community on the highway

Small Town: Hood River

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

from Hood River to Parkdale). The Charburger, a local
restaurant with a private room that two different Lions
clubs share for their meetings, contains a stronger locus
of the same type. There are an indeterminate number
of additional loci, almost always very weak, among the
countys many orchards that are resonant with growth or
fruitful harvest. A new locus, resonant with the Essence of
recreational exertion and sport, is gaining strength on the
Hook, a thin promontory where many windsurfers begin
and end their days on the river.
Though there are few wealthy individuals in Hood
River, the town doesnt want for money. Because Oregon
presently has no sales tax, the bridge to Washington
brings people across the river to spend and save their
money in Hood River. Theres enough flow here, somewhat encouraged by the dominant packs (and moderated
by the bridges toll) to keep the town financially stable.
Really, the feature of the territory that keeps the
Uratha there is need and tradition. Something sleeps beneath the surface here, and it is important that that thing
stays asleep. Thats the biggest reason that, just as the
towns mortal inhabitants, werewolves from Hood River
rarely leave the town for long.

Sample Personae

Hood River is a small town, with few real foci. One

is the fruit industry, as the orchards produce such a large
fraction of the inhabitants overall income. Another is
the fast-growing windsurfing set; although windsurfing is
leaving the realm of pure hobby and becoming more than
simply tourism, boardheads dont yet exert any real influence except as an undirected economic force. School is
the last. There are many children in Hood River, and a lot
of energy goes into their teachings.
Gary Forbes, Teacher (Ret.)
Gary, originally known as Mr. Forbes to most of
Hood River, has had the opportunity to address threequarters of the towns inhabitants from the powerful side
of a desk. Moreover, the grades he gave their performances
in his class are still on their permanent records at Hood
River Valley High School. He exercises his influence
through the vast number of people he knows well, and his
influence is stronger because of his lingering authority.
Of middling height, growing out his grayed beard (but
losing it from his head) and with an older mans potbelly,
Gary doesnt cut an imposing figure until he speaks. An
acerbic sense of humor, which he applied even to his
students in the classroom, is the most notable aspect of his
personality. He rarely appears to take anything seriously,
but his years as a teacher made him a very strong judge of
character. People eventually acclimatize to his habitual
rough jokes and jibes, but not before their reactions give
Forbes a decent mental picture of their characters and how
to push their buttons.
Shortly after his retirement from teaching, Gary
Forbes ran for the influential local office of port commis-

78

sioner. The strong threads that tie him to so many within

the community helped him unseat the incumbent, and
hes using his new power to slow the towns economic and
population boom. Gary is one of Hood Rivers old guard;
he knows enough to know that it should be a secret. A
pack friendly to the status quo will have a great ally if the
packmembers can befriend him and if they can keep
the man who was probably their old teacher from exercising his influence on them.
Anya Colby, Superintendent of Schools
To the children in Hood River Valley, shes the person
who decides whether or not to cancel school because of
the weather. Unfortunately for them, shes from Minnesota, and the weather of northern Oregon doesnt impress
her much. Especially since all the buses are equipped with
tire chains, her most common response to a heavy snow
is an hour delay so the drivers have time to put the chains
on. Only the adults of Hood River see the battles Anya
fights for funding in the schools, equity among students,
advanced programs in all areas and most ardently
freedom of information. Attempts to ban books from the
school libraries bump into her immovable and resounding
rebuffs, and even old restrictions on classes and texts are
beginning to crumble before her assaults.
Anya is a warm woman, comfortable with herself
and the people around her in most circumstances. Shes
not afraid to discuss the state of the countys educational
system or her stands on any given policy, and she defends
herself in debate well. Tall and handsome (if not exactly
beautiful), she keeps herself fit with regular workouts.
Obviously not family, Mrs. Colby is distressingly
perceptive and quite dedicated to the unhindered dissemination of information. Shes already picked up on Hood
Rivers undercurrents shes lived there 10 years but
she hasnt quite put the pieces of the puzzle together.
People are worried that once she does, she wont be quite
as respectful of the need for silence and privacy. If theyre
right, she could upset the balance that Hood River has
kept for hundreds of years. Keeping Anya from betraying
the towns secrets is something the pack must eventually
deal with, whether the werewolves choose to prevent her
from learning the secrets in the first place or from spreading them later.
Currently, Colby is arguing with other local educational gurus over who is to be the new principal. The old
one is moving out of the state, and some would like to see
a more old-fashioned man take the position. Anya would
rather choose someone a little more progressive. Until this
matter is resolved, Anya Colby isnt likely to be looking
more closely at anything less material than educators
resumes.
Fillmore Herz, Owner of Herz Orchards
Herz Orchards is one of the largest orchards in the
valley. With over 800 acres, there are only three other
orchards as large or larger in the valley, and none with
as many acres of pure Golden Delicious apples. Fillmore

79
is rightfully proud of his orchard, which he keeps trim
and productive in its position between Hood River and
Parkdale on Highway 35. Beyond being one of the largest
and best-run orchards in town, Herz Orchard is also one
of the oldest. Fillmores thrice-great grandfather founded
it in 1859, immediately after Oregon became recognized as
a state.
People throughout the valley and sometimes
beyond know that Herz apples grow larger and tastier
than most Golden Delicious do, and Herz apples stay ripe
longer before growing overripe. What people dont know
is why. At the center of Fillmores orchard, concealed by
the hills of normal trees, is the first apple tree planted by
the founder of Herz Orchards. Called the Heart Tree, this
is the most powerful natural locus in Hood River Valley,
and radiates fertile, bountiful Essence into the orchards
around. Fillmore keeps the locus a secret, only allowing
his full-time hands (cousins, all) to pick around it and
tending the Heart Tree himself. The small, red apples
that flower on the large, gnarled tree are delicious beyond
compare, and Fillmores wife Marjorie uses them annually
to win Best of Show at the county fair with various applebased confections. The fact that she doesnt use Golden
Delicious for her baked goods raises some questions, but
no real suspicions come of it.
Fillmore stands about six feet, and has the browned,
leathery skin of someone who does a lot of work outside.
He usually wears a Gosley-Fords Fruit baseball cap over
his dirty blond hair and blue eyes, along with jeans and a
T-shirt. Hes friendly with his friends and terse with everyone else. A stranger asking to see the orchard earns herself
a cold reception, but a friend or family could probably
wrangle a tour. The Herzes have been in Hood River since
before it was chartered, and Fillmore has roots spreading
throughout the valley. Fillmore and most of his cousins are
wolf-blooded, some from an ancestor generations back and
others from an immediate parent or grandparent. Fillmore
is grandson to one of the Forsaken who once called Hood
River her territory. Though he doesnt know many secrets
of the Uratha, he knows they exist. Members of his family
have been the locus caretakers for generations now, and
theyve always done a good job.
What even Fillmores cousins, who see the Heart Tree
and tend the trees around it, dont know is what Fillmore
does at night. Each month, at the new moon, he opens a
swines throat over the trees roots. Taught the ritual by his
father, the owners of Herz Orchards forgot long ago the
black spirit that the blood feeds. This spirit, of unknown
orientation, cannot help but guard the tree as long as it is
fed every month.
Uratha of Hood River, who certainly discover the
spirit after a short time in the territory, have so far been
unable to determine what or why the spirit is. But, just as
Fillmore performs the ritual because it gives him fertile
trees, generations of Uratha have left the spirit alone because it guards the Heart Tree against other spirits but lets

the Forsaken drink of it. It is a mystery, but a convenient

mystery.
Fillmore Herz and Herz Orchards are likely allies of
the Uratha who call Hood River their territory, regardless
of their orientation. They will, after all, probably be family, by marriage if not by blood. When the dominant pack
grooms successors, a common test is to let the younger
pack discover the truth of the Heart Tree for themselves,
without any hints, and let them bang their heads against
the unknowable spirit guardian for a while. This rite of
passage is almost as old as the mystery itself.
Aaron Gosley, Owner of Gosley-Fords Fruit
Theres nothing so satisfying as another sealed
crate, says Aaron, probably because he sells every crate of
apples or pears to markets across the West for a profit. He
inherited the company from his father, Herman Gosley,
who built it from the ground up. Beginning the company
as a small packing business, Herman and his business
partner Franklin Fords expanded it to include shipping
services. After a little over 30 years of expansion, GosleyFords Fruit was one of the two largest packing/shipping
companies in Hood River. Before Herman passed on, he
bought Franklins shares in the business so Herman could
give the entire thing to his son. At the time, Fords wife
had just died, and because of his grief, Franklin did not
resist the purchase.
Today, people generally agree that Aaron doesnt run
the business as well as his father did. Herman was clever
and good at making friends, with a shrewd business sense.
Aaron, some say, is good at inheriting. Thats a little cruel,
though. He runs Gosley-Fords Fruit well enough to turn
a decent profit, but, for the most part, hes just following
the formulae developed by his sire. The companys current owner spends a lot of time following business trends,
especially new ones, but everyone knows he doesnt have
the acumen or nerves to actually follow up his prospects,
be they good or bad ideas.
Aaron is neither tall nor short, but his shining black
hair, dark green eyes and youthful face make him a dashing figure, even outside of the well-cut clothing he favors.
He is able to make engaging small talk, but attempts at
deeper conversation reveal his inner uncertainty. Aaron
tries to take solid positions on various subjects, but any
forceful personality insisting otherwise can fill him with
doubt and set him to hemming and hawing. Since he isnt
a very public figure, most of his associates are orchardists.
Other of Hood Rivers inhabitants know him mostly for
the mansion outside of town. Though the house would
qualify as little more than a big house among the rich of
a city, Aarons mansion is still huge to the people of the
valley, and most consider his house an excessive display of
wealth.
What most dont realize is that, ever since he discovered the existence of werewolves in Hood River populace
and history, Aaron Gosley has been trying to put them on
his payroll. It cost him several easily affordable thousands

Small Town: Hood River

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

to pinpoint the members of the last dominant pack, but
the packmembers always refused to work with (or for) him.
Now that theyve passed the buck on to the new pack, hes
eager to make the offer again.
While no self-respecting werewolf would accept Mr.
Gosleys offer, times are rough. Aarons just waiting for the
right disaster to make the pack need a lot of money, and
badly. Hes considering constructing one himself, but hes
young and somewhat patient hed rather wait for a real
one than borrow trouble before he needs to.
Sterling Fords, Fruit Packer
When Franklin Fords sold his portion of Gosley-Fords
Fruit to his partner, Franklin didnt spend much time
negotiating the price. Aaron Gosley claims thats because
his father offered a fair deal. Sterling Fords, Franklins
daughter, claims that Herman Gosley took advantage of
her mothers death to make and close an obscenely poor
offer for full ownership of the business. While Aaron
Gosley builds his mansions and makes his investments,
Sterling works as a fruit packer at Gosley-Fords strongest
competitors. Her inheritance was a pittance compared to
Aarons, and, while Aaron could retire comfortably, she
barely has enough to build up a savings.
At 510, Sterling stands eye-to-eye with most men.
She works with her blonde hair tied back in a ponytail,
and her preferred flannel-and-jeans outfit leaves her with
a typical farmers tan. She is wiry but strong, thanks to
working all day at filling and moving crates of fruit for the
last 15 years. Shes gruff and usually short, with strangers
and friends alike. Its easy to get Sterling angry, especially
by bringing up the mansion up Highway 35. The Fords
lived in the valley a long time before the packing company formed, and Sterling has some wolf-blood in her. Its
grown thin in most of her family, but the Forsaken spirit is
still strong in her.
Sometimes, once drink has loosened her tongue,
Sterling theorizes on how her mother came to die just
as Franklin Gosley considered a proposal to buy out the
plant. Her suspicions are unfounded and dismissed by her
companions as ramblings, but there could be some truth
to them. Though Sterling doesnt have any influence in
Hood River to speak of, if someone could prove her story
she could stand to gain a great deal. Conversely, Aaron
Gosley could stand to lose a lot, and that may be a good
way for the pack to threaten the richest man in Hood
River into behaving.
Robert Owens, President of the Parkdale Lions
The Lions exert a lot of influence in Hood River
County. While part of thats been true for a few generations, a lot of their influence is due to the efforts of Robert
Owens. A retired orchard owner, Owens joined his local
Lions club at age 18. It was his great pleasure to work at
their Sunday breakfasts, direct traffic at the county fairs as
a fundraiser and participate in the organizations frequent
eyeglass drives. As time passed, it became inevitable that
he become the clubs president, a position he has now held

80

for more than 15 years. Robert passed on the responsibility

of managing the orchard to his son, so that Robert might
have more time for the Lions. His influence among the
Lions communities throughout Hood River County has
grown considerably since he retired, and he talks with the
leaders of the other Lions clubs almost every day.
Robert has the traits common to the Parkdale Owens:
brown hair, blue eyes and a tall stature with a heavy build.
He is jovial, outgoing and conscientious, all traits that
earned him the position of president of the Lions club.
Many people call him friend, and this wealth of contacts
helps him start moving the many charitable projects he
masterminds. The Owens are another family mixed with
the blood of the Forsaken. Robert might not be aware of
the legacy, but its almost a certainty that some of his relatives are keeping the secret.
Learning that werewolves not only exist, but are
among his blood, would throw Robert for a loop. Hes
always been too material for anyone in the know to seriously discuss what underlies Hood River with him. Discovering that some of the jokes and rumors are actually true
shocks him, and Robert, always open, straightforward and
true, recoils from them and his family. To know that his
family, his friends, people hes talked to and known all his
life become wolves, and chase down deer in the forest by
hand and eat them raw would greatly upset him.
Telling Robert the truth doesnt win the pack an ally.
Unless the packmembers manage to somehow get Robert
to accept them, whether through logic or shock, he resigns
from the Lions club and leaves Hood River for Portland,
where at least the beasts are human. (If only he knew.)
Roberts departure sends the Lions clubs and many other
organizations in Hood River spiraling into disarray.
Robert wields a great deal of influence in Hood River,
but that cant benefit the pack if hes gone. Especially if,
as is likely, Robert discovers their existence in a time of
crisis, it is in the packs interest to settle him down and
convince him to stay. The alternative causes distress
throughout Parkdale and Hood River, inviting a bevy of
negative-energy spirits unwelcome in the best of times.
Darlene Herz, Clan Matriarch
Pronounced Dar-leh-ney, Darlene was born an
Owens in Parkdale in 1914. She, and Hood River, survived
the Depression handily, since theres always a market for
fruit, but times werent easy. It was then that she picked up
her sharp eye for seeing the truth in those around her. She
helped a man get a good parcel of land for raising trees,
crops and animals, and decided afterward to make him her
husband because she could manage the farm better than
he could. And every time he was apt to make an error, she
told him he was wrong and made him fix it.
Thats how Mrs. Herz approached her entire life: tell
people what they ought to do and make sure they do it.
Now that shes in her 90s, a widow with four children,
12 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren, she has a
whole brood at her command, willing to do as she says

81
because theyre her descendants and because she knows
all of them and their secrets well enough to shame them
onto her path. It hardly stops there, because she has strong
(if not good) relations with most of the Herzes in the
valley. She makes the smart ones nervous.
For a woman past 90, Darlene still has a good deal of
meat on her bones. In my youth, she sometimes claims,
I was thin and pretty, but marriage changed that! I dont
know how I wasnt thin as a rail doing all Williams work
for him, but I managed! Her hair, white with age, obeys
her as readily as her relatives, tied behind her in a bun.
Her words are blunt but true, and she speaks her mind as
often as not. When she deigns to give advice, she usually knows whats best. When around unfamiliar people,
Darlene (called Mrs. Herz by many) keeps her mouth shut
and her eyes open until she knows how to push the new
persons buttons.
Darlene Herz has two secrets. Herzes are familiar
enough with her habit of spending time outside feeding
the birds. If asked, she claims its just an old womans habit
and glares, as if daring the inquisitor to disbelieve her.
Some of her cousins, however, swear theyve seen her talking to the crows and ravens she feeds. But any time they
whisper about finding a home for her, she always seems to
know.
Second, Darlene doesnt want to die. Her son, who
lives with her, sometimes hears her talking behind the
closed door of her room. He doesnt understand whom she
would address as being blessed with a longer life than
mine, but then he has never had the nerve to ask her
about it. The old dominant pack certainly knew what she
wanted. Its only a question of time before she addresses
their replacements, offering her loyalty and considerable
influence for some method to extend her life.
And if they cant deliver, she may just find a source
who can.
Though Darlene Herz intends to live forever, she
knows thats not likely to happen. Shes now in the process
of grooming her replacement, one of her great-granddaughters now five years old. But even though thats taking a great deal of her time, shes also keeping an eye on
the valley. She may focus on Parkdale, her extended family
and their orchards, but she watches everything. And the
stance she takes is always whats best for her Herz family.

Pushing

the

Boundaries

The territory of Hood River Valley has been stable

for hundreds of years. The Uratha were there long before
the United States came to claim the Oregon Territory for
its European civilization. Even before the countys official
borders were drawn on paper, the shape of the land guided
the Forsaken in laying their own markings. Places where
the boundaries are less clear cause the fewest fluctuations
in the territorys long history. The region to the east and
south of Mount Hood is sometimes part of the Hood River
territory and sometimes part of the territory to the south.

Lost Lake, a popular tourist destination within the county

lines, shifts between Hood River and the territory to the
west. Strong packs make sure that Lost Lake and as much
of the mountains surroundings are theirs, weaker packs
lose the areas, but neither pack lets the borders change
much. Tradition usually binds them too greatly for them
to do so.
Packs might choose to expand past these natural
limitations for many reasons. Outside influences encroach
too much on Hood Rivers way of life, inspiring the pack
to move outward and seek to control these influences, or
to bring the slower pace of life to towns around it. Dangers
from nearby The Dalles go uncontrolled by the local pack,
which is young and unblooded, and the Hood River pack
expands its territory to tame the Shadow wilds and return
their home to safety. Hood River Valley is, compared to
much of the world, relatively safe, and the Uratha who
live there decide the valley should be the jewel of a much
larger territory. Progressive werewolves choose to encourage Hood Rivers expansion; the town needs room to grow,
and nearby packs wont let it as long as they rule their
territories. For any of these reasons or more, a pack may
attempt to expand the territory.
Expanding South: A wolf with expansion in her eyes
is sure to look southward. Though Mount Hood is tall,
the lands there are not hard to cross for the Forsaken,
and they are good lands for hunting. Forests of Douglas fir
shelter many assorted creatures for hunting, and the trees
hide the Uratha from most humans eyes as well. Unfortunately, the Indian reservation to the near south is home to
a family of fierce packs who, driven by their ancestors mistreatment, brook no trespass on their territories or rights.
Though these packs may quarrel amongst themselves, they
always come together to fight foreign foes. Few packs from
the Forsaken tribes would risk bringing all the werewolves
of Warm Springs down on their heads.
Still, there is room enough for expansion into the
Mount Hood National Forest, also to the south of Mount
Hood but west, away from the reservation. There are two
or three packs there, as well, but they do not have the
same unity. In a time when one or more of the packs that
roam there show weakness, an aggressive pack could take
the national forest. Its worth noting that, at this point, a
territory based in Hood River becomes of a size that most
Forsaken packs could not keep the territory all safe, let
alone keep it all from other desirous Uratha. Claiming a
small section around Mount Hood and trying only to hold
that would be wiser for a pack.
Expanding East: The Columbia River flows from the
east, and where the river meanders the land around it is
fertile and easy to travel, if not wide. Shortly to the east
is the small town of Mosier, which usually has its own
werewolf pack within the small community. The Uratha
of Hood River and Mosier clash occasionally, but, historically, Mosiers pack has never been strong. The Mosier
packmembers also disagree with the old ways policies

Small Town: Hood River

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

held by most of Parkdales werewolf families. Mosier ends
up being the small territory that Hood Rivers guardians
give to their replacements for training; the pack claiming the town puts up a fight against the young upstarts
when the pack can. Today, Bloody Thunder has the run
of Mosier, and this pack is no exception to the rule. If the
pack in Hood River has the strength or makes Bloody
Thunder believe it does then the Mosier werewolves
will put their tails between their legs after little more than
a token fight.
Beyond Mosier is The Dalles. Built on less fertile
ground than Hood River and with a less convenient crossing to Washington, The Dalles has never been as troublefree. Economic difficulty is more common there, mostly a
symptom of the towns larger population. Though still no
more than a town, The Dalles has many of the problems
of a full-grown city, and The Dalles spirit realm is worse.
The pack there, called Dark Moon Falling, fights valiantly
to keep the town from worsening. To expand ones territory into or through The Dalles, a pack would have to defeat
Dark Moon Falling, by no means an easy task alone, while
fending off assaults from the many spirits in the Hisil that
would take the opportunity to strike.
Asserting influence in The Dalles and claiming it
as territory is a matter of giving Hood River more influence over the policies governing its neighbor. Politically,
the two towns are in different counties, and there is little
that the governance of one can do to affect the other.
But a few crafted crises in The Dalles, solved by prominent members of the Hood River community, can lay the
foundation for a dependence that would pull The Dalles
under Hood Rivers guidance and into the Hood River
territory. If the pull were sharp enough, it might pull all
the land between, as well. Dark Moon Falling wont give
the land up without a fight, but the pack wont leap toward
one, either.
Moving south from the Columbia after moving east
would not be easy, though after taking The Dalles it
might seem a vacation. Tygh Valley and Dufur lie in that
direction, each a town with a reasonable population and
unreasonable werewolf packs. Since these towns dont
sit on the river, a Hood River pack can depend only on
traveling werewolves and the human news to learn what
goes on there, and neither is dependable. The werewolves
of Dufur and Tygh Valley may be strong, weak or gone. Or
they may be Pure. The risk is clear, and a wise pack would
wait to expand in that direction. Of course, a wise pack
might know that one source of Hood Rivers purity and
security is its insularity.
Expanding West: To the west of Hood River, following the Columbia River and Interstate 84, there is a great
deal of rugged but lush terrain, almost free of humankinds
touch. The only towns in that direction closer than 40
miles are small and on the river. Most of these towns
do not have attendant Forsaken packs that claim territory, but one does. Cascade Locks, a community barely

82

large enough to warrant the single K-12 public school it

has, serves as home to a bitter pack of Hunters in Darkness. The Rotten Leaf Steps, as the packmembers style
themselves, wish only ill on the pack of Hood River, and
the Rotten Leaf Steps werewolves will do all they can to
prevent the Hood River pack from expanding its territory.
Inland, only loners and Uratha live. There is room
enough in the wilderness west of Hood River and south of
the Columbia for many werewolf packs to claim sizeable
territories. Claiming additional territory in this region
would not present any great challenge beyond defeating
the pack that already holds it, but each additional victory
would increase the Hood River territory more than any
expansion to the east or south would, and each chunk of
territory brings its own problems and dangers. Even after
defeating only one or two packs, the conquerors would
find that their territory had become unwieldy in size.
When expanding into this nearly uninhabited area,
the distinct claims to territory hinge more on inter-pack
combat than on scratching marks on stones or pissing on
trees. Once the resident pack sniffs interlopers, most packs
insist on direct challenge.
Expanding North: Every hunter, and the talented
criminal, knows that scent does not keep on water. And a
river as wide as the Columbia makes for a difficult swim,
so wolves always tended to end their claims on the rivers
banks. Thats still easiest today, but its no longer necessary. Bridging the river between Oregon and Washington
is one of the advantages that make Hood River so successful, and it gives the Uratha of Hood River Valley the
opportunity to expand into Washington to the north.
Obstacles abound. First, immediately across the bridge
is White Salmon, a small town with a backyard wilderness
to rival Hood Rivers own and a strong, old pack to guard
it. If that was not enough, inhabitants of Oregon and
Washington have a measure of state identity. Neither state
would take it kindly if the other began to annex additional land, and the werewolves who live there share some
of that identity and that response. In short, an Oregon
pack trying to conquer Washington soil is likely to cause
the packs there to ignore their feuds in order to expel the
intruders.
Trying to hold territory with only one thin link, the
bridge, to the packs home territory is another huge reason
not to even try. A pack needs to protect its territory in
order to keep it, and the pack must tread the territory if
the werewolves want to protect it. Walking both the soil
of Hood River and White Salmon in the same day costs
money for the toll bridge, and keeping both safe over
months or years adds up, especially if the werewolf crosses
often. Aside from the monetary cost, the bridge then
becomes a weakness. Theres no place for one to walk it, so
if a rival pack blocks traffic or, worse, destroys the bridge,
the Hood River pack is neatly cut off from its Washington
territory. There are other bridges, but they add an hour
to the travel time. Only Uratha who know nothing or

83
something special would attempt to claim territory
accessible only by bridge. For this reason most of all, the
land to the north is left to its current claimants, at least by
the pack in Hood River.

Potent ial Threat s

Idyllic as Hood River may look on the surface, no
place on earth is truly safe. Dangers are everywhere, and
cunning spirits want more than they deserve. The pack
that claims Hood River may strive to keep it quiet, safe
and unnoticed by the rest of the world, but there are dangers aplenty anyway.

Where Are

the

Pure?

Eternal enemies of the Forsaken, implacable foes, why arent there Pure packs here to
threaten (and hopefully kill) the dominant pack
of Hood River?
In part, its theme: the threats to this territory are quieter but potentially more deadly than
the Pure. Pure Tribes can make the spirits rise up
in revolt and assault their Forsaken cousins in
both the spirit and physical worlds, but the Pure
Tribes cant simmer beneath the surface the way
Mouth-Under-the-Mountain can.
Its also history: sometime in the last generation, the Ivory Claws managed to influence some
of the youngest of Hood Rivers Uratha. It was
easier than the Pure could have hoped; the werewolves connection to Parkdale through blood
and repeated intermarriage had made them susceptible to the Claws notions of purity in blood.
Once the dominant pack discovered the trouble
and had to kill several of its own kin who could
not relinquish the foul ideas of the Pure the
pack rallied the nearby Forsaken in a massive
hunt. The Pure have not been seen within 1 00
miles of Hood River since.
Of course, that doesnt mean theyre not
actually there.

Rotten Leaf Steps, Hunters in Darkness Pack

Once, this pack claimed the territory known as Hood
River. That was some years ago, now, and it is a mystery
how these packmembers came to possess that territory
in the first place. Some whisper that Rotten Leaf Steps
interrupted the generational progression, by successfully challenging the dominant pack and running off the
pack-in-training to take it. Others hint that the Rotten
Leaf Steps were the rightful inheritors until the previous dominant pack drove them off. The wolves of Rotten
Leaf Steps speak little of these things, but they are vocal
enough about having once possessed Hood River. And
their enmity for any pack that holds it today is also clear.

Hood River may not be prime territory, but it is silently

mighty enough for any Forsaken to want it.
Rotten Leaf Steps now resides in Cascade Locks,
about 15 miles west of Hood River along Interstate 84
and just a few miles outside the Hood River territory.
The packmembers hold a territory 20 miles square, a few
miles along the road and several into the wilderness away
from the river. Its hard for them to keep much more. The
Uratha could expand westward, leaving their marks in
the small towns until they near Troutdale, with its own
pack, but doing so would consume their attention and efforts voraciously. Not only would they probably lose their
grounds away from the river to the packs that live only in
that region, stretching their territory in such a way would
also take them away from Hood River, the object of their
hate and desire.
The Forsaken of this pack become a threat when they
think they could take Hood River back. They constantly
watch for a weakness in the pack that holds the territory.
Once the Rotten Leaf Steps does, theres nothing for it
but to go on the offense. Rotten Leaf Steps wants nothing
so much as to once again call Hood River its own, and
the packmembers will take advantage of any opportunity.
If the dominant pack begins expansion in any direction
but west, Rotten Leaf Steps will silently tread into Hood
River as the pack steps out. When the pack returns from
a mighty battle or cleansing of the Shadow Realm, Rotten
Leaf Steps will take the chance to face the dominant pack
down and run those packmembers out. Worst, Rotten Leaf
Steps is just waiting for a new, young pack to be given the
territory so that Rotten Leaf Steps can hastily evict the
younger pack and claim what was once this packs. When
the players werewolves take this territory (or begin the
game with it, or get distracted by a spirit uprising or Pure
attacks), this jealous pack may see its opening and make a
move.
Gilbert Owens (Irraka): Of the Parkdale Owens clan,
Gilbert was always a sharp young man. Sharp enough,
in fact, that he earned a scholarship to the University of
Washington. There, he experienced his First Change and
would have invalidated his scholarship were it not for a
few local elders who told him what was going on. He was
also smart enough to figure out, from what he saw around
him as a youth and what he had learned now, the secret of
his family back in Parkdale.
In Washington, he joined the tribe of Hunters in
Darkness, celebrating his enjoyment of surviving in the
wilderness through his wits alone, and he gathered about
him a pack of like-minded Uratha new from their Changes. As their alpha, he led them to Hood River, anticipating
being welcomed home by his family and his new brethren.
No ones sure what actually happened. His family may
have given Gilbert the territory, only for him to lose it
to another pack, or Gilbert may have taken the territory
without the old packs blessing and then lost the land,
either to that pack or its chosen successors. Anyone who

Small Town: Hood River

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

was there isnt talking, and the humans who were around
dont remember any trouble either. Whether Rotten Leaf
Steps ever held the territory without question is unknown,
though the packmembers insist they did. Regardless,
Gilbert and his companions were eventually exiled to
Cascade Locks.
Like his cousin Robert, Gilbert is tall, with a heavy
build, brown hair and blue eyes. He dresses in the blue
jeans and T-shirt of an orchardist, too. His muscle has less
tone that it appears, however; Gilbert would rather convince someone than fight him, and hed plan an ambush
rather than an open challenge. His sharp wits, combined
with his bitter nature, give him cause to speak sharply to
those around him unless he wants something. In the
end, Gilbert wants nothing more than the territory his
family should have passed on to him, and he means to
have it.
Owls Wing (Ithaeur): Born as Tanya Osk, Owls Wing
was never satisfied with the explanations her parents and
teachers gave her for how and why of the world. Something more was behind it, she always felt, and it turned
out that she was right. After her Change, she found her
naturalists love of the outdoors turned to mystical ends,
and she finally began to feel as if the answers made sense.
She named herself Owls Wing for wisdom and silence.
Since joining Gilberts pack, she has served as his temperance, common sense to protect him from his pure intelligence.
Owls Wing is almost as tall as Gilbert, with long,
dark hair hanging to her waist that matches her coffee
skin and dark brown eyes. She speaks little to strangers, and then cryptically. Only with her packmates is she
straightforward. Owl, as her packmates call her, usually
wears a loose, earth-toned dress that she can separate and
bind to each leg for easy movement through the woods or
up mountains.
Mark Wing (Rahu): Short and clearly Asian, Mark
doesnt look like anyone to fear. Unfortunately for people
who underestimate him, Mark long ago embraced his
wild side. Hes a fierce warrior in Hishu or Dalu, launching himself at foes and not letting up until they fall. Mark
prefers to fight in Dalu when he cant don his war form,
because he enjoys the rush his instincts give him as he
enters battle.
In conversation, Mark Wing likes to hang back and
let Gilbert do the talking. Mark occasionally makes jokes
or thinly disguised insults, usually referencing something
that only the rest of his pack will understand. Mark dresses in jeans and shirts, like the youth of Cascade Locks,
and likes to stare at people until they look away.
Cathy Admonton (Cahalith): A Washington native,
just as the rest of the pack apart from Gilbert, the opportunity to join an age-old territory with a fairly steady
record of succession something quite rare among the
Forsaken excited her. There would be a wealth of
history, unique howls and songs to learn, and she could

84

explore an Uratha family tree going back centuries. And

she never got the chance, because they didnt keep the
territory. If anything, she is more bitter than Gilbert about
losing Hood River. She recognizes now that the werewolves of Hood River would probably never tell her the
stories or sing for her the howls she wants to learn. All she
can do from Cascade Locks is listen to the echoes over the
hills, remember these unclear distortions and fume.
Cathys of middling height and has blonde hair she
lets hang down to her shoulders. She typically wears a
shirt or blouse with her jeans or pants, and is pretty. Shes
very inquisitive, but her questions have a sour tone to
them. Shes also no longer entirely happy with Gilbert as
alpha, but she isnt ready to leave and she cant challenge
him. Instead, she picks at him with sarcasm.
Mouth-Under-the-Mountain, Spirit in or of Mount
Hood
Mount Hood is an old mountain in the Cascade
Range. Everyone knows that. But not everyone knows that
Mount Hood is also an active volcano. It hasnt erupted
in a long time, to be sure, and studies suggest that, even
should it spew lava, any danger would affect the south face
of the mountain and Hood River Valley would be safe.
These are, unfortunately, studies that do not account for
the fickle nature of the spirit world.
Uratha understand more of the worlds animist nature
than those scientists ever will, and the Uratha know that
there is something else beneath the snow-and-stone skin
of Mount Hood. This is Mouth-Under-the-Mountain, an
old spirit whose origins are known only to it, if it isnt too
old to remember them either. Mouth-Under-the-Mountain
is not overfond of the Forsaken, but showing proper obeisance and offering tribute can appease the spirit enough
to suffer the presence of a werewolf on its slopes or even
answer a question.
Mouth-Under-the-Mountain doesnt challenge or
fight werewolves just for traversing its slopes, but it allows
none to claim them. Uratha who stay too long on Mount
Hoods slopes soon find that the trees and stones give
them no shelter and the snow turns treacherous. Voicing
respect for Mouth-Under-the-Mountain as one approaches
and bringing gifts allows a werewolf to stay longer, though
not any longer than a month at the most. The best gifts
are those related to heat or fire. Coal, oil or other things
that burn hot are good starts, hot peppers will sometimes do and hand-warmers are a good modern touch. A
werewolf drops the tribute into a crevasse on the mountain, where the items seem to disappear. Sufficient respect
can earn a werewolf the right to ask a single question of
Mouth-Under-the-Mountain, though the werewolf should
leave the mountain shortly after. Getting an answer wears
out ones welcome. Questions are asked to and answers
come from caves in the slope, which are sometimes steaming but always too small to explore.
Any local Forsaken knows that Mouth-Under-theMountain loves fire and heat, but they dont understand

85
how much, or why. Mouth-Under-the-Mountain gathers
its supply of flammables in order to ignite Mount Hood
once more, and the spirit is coming close to fulfilling
its requirements. In the months preceding its eruption,
Mouth-Under-the-Mountain begins giving ever-stranger
answers to those who ask, and spirits surrounding Mount
Hood become agitated, even afraid, and some flee the area
for safer parts. Few, if any, are willing to share what they
know with the Uratha for fear of reprisal. If the pack of
Hood River is perceptive enough to note this
threat, it falls to them to determine how
it will affect their territory: adversely.
The eruption will occur out all faces
of the mountain, and will be larger
and more fierce than the last
time Mount Hood erupted: the
eruption will set Hood River to
ruins.
Discerning the motives of
Mouth-Under-the-Mountain is
not easy, especially by asking
it directly. It may say things
like, Pregnancy is come,
The belly is overfull or
Heat is warranted, in
response to such questions.
Oblique questions allow a
werewolf to learn for certain
that something is going to be
released by or from Mount
Hood. What that something
actually is never becomes
clear: Is it a child-spirit of
great power? Is it MouthUnder-the-Mountain itself,
and what exactly is that
an idigam, or just a mighty
spirit? Or does Mouth-Underthe-Mountain only refer to
the lava the spirit means
to spit out? As the time
draws near, finding
spirits in the area willing to talk about what
will happen becomes
more and more difficult. All those not sworn
to Mouth-Under-the-Mountain have already left the
area, which suggests a spiritual effect in addition to the
merely physical eruption.
There are a few ways to slow or stop the eruption and
accompanying event. Cold things, such as ice, dry ice,
water or endothermic chemical reactions can be thrown
into the mouths around the mountain, previously used to
give hot things in tribute. Each item thrown in buys the
werewolves anywhere from a few minutes to a half-hour,

but the mouths move, or cease to be effective. Shortly

after throwing in something cold, the small hole ceases
to emit steam, and throwing items in only fills the hole.
If a truly vast source of cold something that absorbs a
prodigious amount of heat is sacrificed to the mountain, the entire process might cease. Such a thing would
have to be magical in some way, a powerful fetish devoted
to surviving hot climes or the spirit of a glacier, for example. The first would be a great sacrifice for the werewolf
who owned it, and the second would surely
require some great gift to the spirits
territory or court in order for it to
make that sacrifice.
More directly, the Forsaken
may be able to learn that
Mouth-Under-the-Mountain needs its less-potent
sworn spirits to reach its
goal. Without them, the
eruption could not be.
The solution becomes
clear: the werewolves
must mow their way
through the lesser
servants of the great
spirit beneath Mount Hood,
destroying as many of
them as the pack can. It
would be kinder to force
the spirits to leave and
spare them, but they are
bound to Mouth-Underthe-Mountain and could
still be used for its purpose.
Of course, this method shows
no mercy whatsoever for the
spirits, and those that come to
take their places will not thank
the werewolves for the assault.
The last choice is to
take the battle to MouthUnder-the-Mountain. By
interrogating one of its
subordinates or by asking
Mouth-Under-the-Mountain itself, Uratha can find
an entrance to the spirits chamber
within Mount Hood. After crawling through miles
of pitch black, damp tunnel, growing warmer with every
foot, the werewolves step out onto a ledge of obsidian over
a floor of red-hot stone. Here, at the heart of a mighty
locus imbued with heat and explosive Essence, they can
speak to Mouth-Under-the-Mountain directly. Its motives
are still hard to discern, but it speaks more freely. Once in
its presence, the pack can choose to combat Mouth-Under-the-Mountain directly or convince it not to detonate

Small Town: Hood River

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

the mountain. The spirit is strong, but not invincible, and
it is stubborn, but not inconvincible.
Flowering Judgment, Fertility-Spirit in Revolt
There are many fertility-spirits in Hood River,
encouraging the land and trees to bear fruit and feeding
off the results. Flowering Judgment is one of the stronger,
feeding off most of the well-known Herz Orchards and
commanding a small legion of weaker growth- and fruitspirits. Flowering Judgment desires the Heart Tree, the
only part of the orchard that the spirit is not allowed to
touch. In order to get the Heart Tree, Flowering Judgment
has been sowing dissention among fertility-spirits throughout the valley. They are kept from their right, Flowering
Judgment claims, the most powerful source of sustenance
for them in 100 miles. Were they allowed to consume its
Essence, Flowering Judgment asserts, they could make the
valley bloom with an unprecedented bounty, making the
region even stronger and more fecund than ever. That the

Uratha families of Parkdale forbid the spirits to drink of

the trees Essence is an outrage, the spirit insists, and other
spirits are beginning to believe its words.
Hood Rivers pack can, and a good pack should, pick
up the mutterings of discontent before the spirits rise up
in pure rebellion. Politics becomes the weapon of choice
for keeping the anger from growing too great and eventually winning the spirits back to the werewolves side. Or,
at least, back into grudging complacence, as the spirits
were before. But Flowering Judgment cannot be won over.
It must be removed from its position of power or given a
concession. Its willing to stop aggravating the other spirits
only if it is allowed to draw Essence from the Heart Tree.
(Flowering Judgment doesnt care about the other spirits.) How much and how often is a matter of negotiation.
Flowering Judgment will eventually try to leverage that
access into owning the Heart Tree outright, but the spirit
is willing to be patient.
If the pack cant calm the spirits, the packmembers
will be forced to defend the Heart Tree and Herz Orchards
as the enraged spirits of the valley assault the locus to earn
their right. While the Forsaken may be victorious, the
aftermath will still trouble them. Spirits foreign to Hood
River will take the place of those that fall in battle,
and the pack will have to make sure these new
spirits know how things there work. Not all of them
will be agreeable.

Alternate Intentions
What if Flowering Judgment is right?
Maybe the Heart Tree and the way the Herz
family keeps it alive and bounteous actually
constricts the natural flow of Essence through
the valley, binding up much more of the Essence
in the Herz Orchards than is healthy. In this
case, Flowering Judgments cause is righteous,
and the spirit feels the responsibility to convince
the Uratha of that fact or move the other
spirits of fertility to destroy the tree and
free Hood Rivers potential.

Black Blood Guardian, Enigma of the Heart

Tree
In the spirit world, the Heart Tree appears
vibrantly beautiful, shaming all the spirit-reflections
of the trees around it. In the Hisil, the Heart Tree is
always in bloom and bearing young and ripe fruit at
the same time. To all appearances, the Heart Tree is a
haven of life in the dangerous Shadow Realm.
Sadly, it is not so. Approaching the Tree close enough
to touch awakens its guardian. Known only as the Black
Blood Guardian, though angry spirits and curious were-

86

87
wolves call it all manner of names, it manifests by seeping
out of the spirit earth around the Heart Tree, composed
of the dark blood from 1,000 sacrifices. After several moments, the creature congeals into a vaguely human shape,
blood constantly running down its body to pool around its
feet and disappear.
The Black Blood Guardian speaks little. It warns off
spirits that come too close (though few by now need that
warning) and answers an Urathas questions with a simple
affirmative or negative though the spirit never reveals
anything about its nature, and it knows little about much
besides the Heart Tree and its immediate environs.
The Black Blood Guardian must be quite powerful to
guard the desirable locus against all of Hood Rivers spirits, but the spirits Rank and strengths are unknown. Its
been too long since any, spirit or otherwise, tested their
strengths against it.

Want

the

Truth?

The nature of the mystery in Hood River

proper is left purposefully vague, so that Storytellers can tie the mystery to any of the threats
presented here or one of their own design. Here
are a couple of options:
Of Ice and Fire: The small rituals of ice and
water protected homesteads from admitting the
spirit-servants of Mouth-Under-the-Mountain,
which would steal embers and coals and other
hot things for their master. All the flames and
burning in Hood River have only accelerated the
mountain-spirits timeline. If the werewolves
dont change things soon, the mountain will fill
to capacity.
Should the eruption occur, it would herald
the return of an idigam to the world. Loving of
heat and fire, the idigam was bound beneath the
snow and cold stone of Mount Hood along with
a small-minded but strong guardian spirit. The
idigam corrupted its guardian, making MouthUnder-the-Mountain gather power until it had
the strength to break the idigam free of its
prison. Failing to stop the eruption could be the
beginning of a new era in northern Oregon and
southern Washington, and a new war.
If you dont want an idigam in your game,
but the pack fails to stop Mouth-Under-the-

Mountain, make the threat the birth of a new

spirit-thing from the peak of Mount Hood. Made
of stone and fire, the spirit-thing wanders the
area mindlessly seeking flammables to consume.
When destroyed, whether in the flesh or spirit,
the spirit-thing rises again after four days from
the now-open peak of Mount Hood. The pack
must now face this new threat, even while helping Hood River recover from the aftermath of
the eruption.
A Killing Frost: Ages ago, the first Uratha
to settle here made an arrangement with the
spirit courts of wind: the wind-spirits would blow
the deadly ash of Mount Hood away from their
territory, making one refuge in the otherwise
inhospitable region, and the Uratha would sacrifice their blood at the command of certain omens
outside either groups influence. As a result, what
would become Hood River grew fertile and safe.
Generations later, when the volcano began
to sleep and the area around it became more
fecund than deadly, Hood River was even more
so. Fertility-spirits quickly grew mighty and arrogant. No longer sure what the pact (already
old) with the winds comprised or willing to stop
the sacrifices that protected them, the Forsaken
made an effort to reduce the power of the fertility-spirits by encouraging the frost- and cold-spirits still an incredibly fertile place, Hood River
was no longer about to be overrun by spirits that
would rather kill the humans and let their nature
spread unimpeded.
With the advent of modern growing techniques, the fertility-spirits of Hood River are
suddenly able to access more power than before.
Once they realized the possibility, they (led by
Flowering Judgment) began a whispering war to
increase the bounty of the harvest and release
the shackles on their power. Orchardists who
defy the spirits find their trees turning weakly
and growing rotten fruit. When the spirits have
built their power base enough, they intend to
wage an open war on the Forsaken and their
pet humans, turning the valley into the spirits
playground.
Whether or not this fuels Mouth-Underthe-Mountain enough to trigger its birth is a
whole new can of worms.

Small Town: Hood River

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

The Forested
Wilderness
What is a forest? For some, a forest is a resource to be
exploited, nothing more than a source of timber to fuel the
growth of human industry. For others, a forest represents a
natural heritage we must preserve, even if doing so might
prove to be inconvenient. And for still others, a forest is a
source of peace and recreation, a way to escape the trials
and tribulations of modern life. In the World of Darkness,
however, a forest is something altogether different. It reminds
us of the world that used to be, and of the majesty and power
the forest-spirits once claimed as their own. A forest is bursting with power, filled with the energies of life and death alike,
and is humbling to behold. In the World of Darkness, the
forest is alive. And it is watching. And it is waiting.
And it is unfriendly.

Overview

Wilderness territories are among the most primal

and basic of those at a werewolfs disposal, and wilderness
territories are also among the most difficult to understand.
Most werewolves come from an urban upbringing, and as
the worlds wilderness areas continue to shrink as time
goes by, it becomes more and more difficult for people to
relate to the wilderness areas even if those people happen to be werewolves. Wilderness territories should not be
overlooked, however, for they are a source of great power.
In the process of learning to understand the wilderness,
a werewolf learns to understand himself, and that makes
these sorts of territories immensely attractive.
For most people, the wilderness is a place outside. The
wilderness is outside of their homes, beyond their neighborhoods, removed from their lives. For the most part, people
dont live in the forest; it is too far removed from their sense
of normal, and lacks the amenities they consider essential
for basic survival. But this does not mean the forest is empty
far from it. People visit forests for all sorts of reasons,
most of them centered around recreation. People come to
the forest to hunt, fish, camp, hike and learn about the
world theyve left behind. They want to feel as though they
are in touch with nature, so long as nature cant touch them
back. In the World of Darkness, however, nature is often
uncooperative; this is where the horror begins.

M aking the Wilderness

H orrific

One of the scarier aspects of the wilderness in general

and forests in particular is the feelings of isolation they

88

engender in visitors. While getting away from the rat race

of modern civilization on occasion cab be nice, that very
escape also cuts visitors off from their support networks;
they can no longer call the police or the fire department
in case of an emergency, and if one of the forests more
unpleasant denizens chooses to make a snack of them,
theres precious little they can do about it. Forests can be
particularly spooky in this regard, since they offer so many
wonderful hiding places for would-be predators, whether
real or imagined.
Forests are also scary because of their ambiguity;
while the local Uratha pack might know the landscape
well, to the casual visitor one tree looks just like any other.
This makes getting lost painfully easy, which works in
tandem with the feelings of isolation described above to
create an atmosphere of great tension. Savvy Uratha can
use this to their advantage, but even seasoned werewolves
can find the ambiguity of a territory used against them
particularly if its someone elses territory.
One of the scariest aspects of a forest, at least from an
Urathas perspective, is the fact that a forest simply doesnt
operate according to the same rules as cities do. This is to
be expected, of course; humans and their cities are, after all,
relative newcomers to planet Earth, so it stands to reason
that their way of doing things wont be the norm for spirits
around the world. But, even still, an Uratha will find a
forests Hisil to be shocking if she doesnt know what to expect. She will find the spiritscape dominated by animalistic
needs instead of human beliefs and concerns, and she will
learn that loci develop and are nourished by the vigor of the
forest instead of by the tremor of human emotions. The forest is the Hisil at its best and worst, and certainly at its most
primal, and it will consume the unwary in an instant.

Customizat ion

When most people think about a natural setting, a

forest is what immediately comes to mind. This is understandable, but what makes one forest different from another? Forests are not all the same, after all, and taking note
of their distinctive features is important if one is to make
the setting memorable and significant to the story. Perhaps
more importantly, who says a wilderness area needs to be
a forest? Deserts, plains and scrubland are becoming more
and more common as the worlds forests disappear, and
these territories can be every bit as rewarding as a more
traditional forest setting.

89

Physical Terrain

Local H istory

One of the easiest ways to customize a wilderness territory is via physical terrain. Physical features are easy to
notice and remember, and they serve as excellent landmarks for navigation. Consider the following:
Rivers and Lakes: Rivers form natural boundaries
between territories, and tend to be focal points for activity
within the territory. If a territory has a river within it,
how is the river used? Who or what is affected by this use?
Humans use rivers for transport, industry and recreation,
while plants and animals use rivers as a water source and
potentially as a means of escaping enemies. What does
this mean for the pack that claims the territory as its own?
Lakes are even more influential; depending on their size,
they might be focal points for entire regions, with events
in and around the lake affecting multiple Uratha packs.
Mountains and Hills: Mountains and hills tend
to make patrolling a territory difficult, since they reduce
visibility and make navigation hazardous. By the same
token, however, they also offer multiple hiding places from
pursuers, and, therefore, can be quite defensible. Mountainous terrain tends to be sparsely populated, since it has
to be modified a bit before humans can get any real use of
out of it. If the pack is lucky, this might mean the territory
is of little interest to other parties, but that is by no means
a given; a mountainous region might prove to be popular
as a ski resort, for instance, and human industry has no
compunctions about leveling a hilly territory if doing so
suits their purposes.
Caves: Caves are easily one of the most distinctive
features a territory can possess. While they are generally
of little use to the local flora, animals of all sorts use caves
for both shelter and privacy. For humans, they are sacred
spaces, representing horror and comfort in equal measure;
either way, caves give rise to loci easily, due both to the
regularity of the caves use and the intensity of the emotions associated with such use.

No matter the forests current state, the forest probably wasnt always so. Who has been using it, and what
have they done to it? Has it been subjected to natural
disturbances of one sort or another, such as fires, storms or
floods? Has it been designated a national forest or, perhaps
more significantly, a national park? If so, that will have a
big effect on the packs freedom of movement within their
new home.

Cult ural Influences

One of the most important questions to ask when
designing a territory concerns the people who make use
of the territory. Different cultures use forests in different ways, and its important to keep this in mind when
designing the territory. In the United States, for example,
people use forests primarily for industry and recreation.
By contrast, people in developing countries might use
forests primarily for survival the people hunt for meat
instead of for recreation, harvest trees for warmth and for
cooking instead of for timber and so on. This variation
might exist even within a culture; Western hunters might
value the forest for its recreational value, while Western
industry cares more about the financial gains associated
with timber harvest. As such, the local culture will have a
heavy influence on how the territory is used, and this, in
turn, will dramatically affect the pack.

Wildlife
What wildlife inhabits the forest? This can vary considerably from place to place, particularly where big mammals are concerned. Wolves, for example, can be found
in Canada, Minnesota and a few other northern states,
but are otherwise absent in the United States. Deer are
plentiful in some areas and entirely absent in others; while
the black bears of the eastern United States are of little
concern, the great brown bears of the Pacific Northwest
and Alaska are frightening, even by werewolf standards. A
forests fauna can have a big impact on the forests overall
health and viability, and the fauna will play a role in how
the characters need to manage their territory.

Variant Ecot ypes

While the default territory described here is a forest,
players need not be restricted to such if they would prefer
something more exotic. Wilderness areas of all sorts have
a great deal to offer a werewolf pack, and if deserts, coastlines or rolling plains are more palatable to the troupe, a
Storyteller should feel free to adapt this material to a more
desirable environment. Some of the characteristics of
alternative landscapes are given below.
Deserts: Seemingly hostile and unforgiving, deserts
cover close to 20% of the Earths landscape and occur
where the rainfall is very low typically less than 20
inches per year. People see deserts and think them barren
wastelands, but a closer look reveals that they are instead
filled with a surprisingly rugged diversity of life. The spirits
that live in deserts are no different; vast and powerful,
these beings are adaptation given form, and they tend to
be among the most resourceful of all the Hisils denizens.
Humans who make the deserts their home gradually come
to appreciate their stark beauty, even as the humans learn
to live with the deserts harsh and unforgiving natures.
Mountains: From the rolling hills of the Appalachians to the mighty peaks of the Himalayas, mountains
are some of the oldest and most awe-inspiring of all
wilderness areas. The spirits here are proud and resilient,
and there is nothing they cannot endure. Apart from the
more noticeable features, mountainous regions are also
noteworthy because of the impact they have on the world
around them. Their mere presence affects the weather patterns and overall climate for entire continents. It stands
to reason, then, that understanding mountains and the

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Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

spirits that guide them can tell a werewolf much about the
world around him.
Oceans and Seas: While its difficult to imagine
an Uratha pack claiming an ocean as a territory, werewolves can control gateways to that body of water, and the
bounty they provide. The most interesting and dynamic
parts of an ocean lie along the continental coastlines, and
this is where humans and quite possibly werewolves
interact with the sea. Coastal-spirits are vibrant and
dynamic, representing the food stocks the sea provides
and the tempestuous nature of the ever-changing coastline. These are the spirits the Uratha know, but these
spirits are not alone; farther out, in the middle of the deep
blue sea, there are older spirits, spirits that are mysterious
and cruel. What secrets might they hold, and how might
the Uratha benefit from those secrets?
Old Growth Forest: Old growth forest is very old,
and because of this, its spirits are very powerful. This is
forest that has remained relatively untouched by modern
civilization, and is becoming rarer and rarer in the modern era. Old growth forest is teaming with life, and, left
to its own devices, this forest offers a stable ecosystem for
wildlife and spirits alike. Unfortunately, such forests are
rarely left to their own devices; human influences often
prove to be disruptive, and this means the forests ecology
either suffers or, in extreme cases, breaks down entirely.
Old growth forest take centuries to fully mature, and
because of this, such forests take a long time to recover
once disturbed.
Grasslands: More than any other region, grasslands
are classic wolf country. They run thick with prey, offer
ample cover and cover huge swaths of land. Perhaps more
importantly, grasslands recover quickly from disturbances
wildfires are relatively common, as are thunderstorms
and every sort of foul weather imaginable. The spirits
of grasslands are among the more approachable from an
Uratha viewpoint, as the spirits dynamism leaves them
open to exploring new ways of doing things. This does not
mean these spirits are friendly, however; indeed, they are
capricious and unpredictable, and often demand much in
return for their services. But grasslands-spirits, nonetheless, have much to offer, so long as they are approached
correctly.
Rainforest: Easily the richest and most diverse
biomes on the planet, tropical rainforests are also among
the most vulnerable. Uratha prize them as territories
due to the fact that they are essentially vast repositories
of spiritual knowledge; virtually everything in the spirit
realm can be found in a rainforests Hisil, and its easily
accessible to anyone who knows where to look. Unfortunately, such rainforests are both uncommon to begin with
and critically endangered; human conflict and expansion
threaten the tropical rainforests very existence, and this
makes holding territories in rainforest regions extremely
difficult.

90

Temperate rainforests are another matter. They are

even rarer than the tropical variety, but are preferred as
territories since they are primarily located in the Pacific
Northwest and British Columbia they are, in essence,
ancient, primeval, powerful territories located within
spitting distance of all of the niceties of modern civilization. For the werewolf who wants everything, a territory in
temperate rainforest is all he can ask for and more.
Wetlands: Easily dismissed as swamps and bogs,
wetlands are much maligned but critically important
terrestrial habitats. They control flooding, purify water,
reduce the effects of erosion and wave action and serve as
feeding grounds for all manner of birds and fish. Wetlands
also have significant cultural value, providing recreation
and literary inspiration for humans of all stripes. Small
wonder, then, that wetlands reflections in the Hisil often
serve as waypoints for travelers and crossroads for information exchange. Small wonder, too, that wetlands are thick
with spirits obsessed with secrets either keeping them
safe or hiding them from others.

S tart ing Out

Wilderness territories are attractive to werewolves for

many reasons. To begin with, these territories exist largely
outside of the bounds of human society, which means the
werewolves can easily avoid the scrutiny of curious or intrusive humans. Apart from providing some much-needed
privacy, this also allows the werewolves to go about their
work without having to worry about triggering the Lunacy
in nearby onlookers. Wilderness territories are popular for
other reasons as well; they call to a werewolfs more primal
instincts, and offer werewolves a terrifying clarity of
purpose that is absent in more urbane settings. Wilderness
areas are often battlegrounds in the Forsakens war with
the Pure, and thus offer ample opportunities to hone ones
skills in battle. The wilderness offers plenty of food for
the werewolf looking to maintain her Harmony, and the
wilderness operates in ways completely divorced from the
hectic lifestyles of the civilized world. Wildernesses are, to
put it mildly, rather popular areas.
Of course, few werewolves are actually born in the
wilderness. They are usually born in cities and towns
just like everyone else, and this means they are generally
accustomed to life in urban, or at least rural, areas. This
means that the first challenge in claiming a wilderness
territory lies in finding (or forming) a pack of like-minded
individuals, people who want to escape to the wilderness
and dedicate their lives to maintaining a territory there.
This is no small task, no matter the rewards such a territory might offer.

Bequest

One of the simplest methods of obtaining a wilderness territory is to inherit it. Werewolves are not immortal, and they are as eager to pass their holdings to their

91

offspring as any human. Even Uratha with no biological

kin might readily pass their territory to an up-and-coming
pack that has managed to capture the Urathas interest
(the troupe, for example). No matter the method of inheritance, obtaining a territory in this manner carries with it
a number of benefits and pitfalls.
To begin with, at least one member of the pack is
likely familiar with the territory to a greater or lesser
extent. He might have visited his uncles cabin as a child,
or spent summers in his familys hunting lodge or even
just visited the place on holidays when getting together
with family. The rest of the pack is not as lucky, of course,
and even the newfound owner of the territory still needs
to learn about the whys and wherefores of the territorys
spiritscape. Still, the process is a bit easier than coming
into the territory cold.
Of course, this sort of familiarity cuts both ways; just
as the packmember is familiar with the territory, so, too,
are the territorys other inhabitants primarily spirits
likewise familiar with him. This might give the pack an
advantage when claiming the territory, and it might not;
either way, its something the pack should consider before
the packmembers get too carried away.
Another potential pitfall with territorial inheritance
is, naturally, the baggage that comes with the territory.
While this isnt as much of an issue as it might be in more
urban territories, a piece of wilderness land might have
all sorts of legal issues associated with it conservation

easements, mortgages, debts and so on and so forth. While

the story would certainly suffer if the game got too bogged
down in the details of real life, throwing a complication
or two of this sort in the players direction can help to
remind them that the human world is still an important
factor in their lives, no matter how far removed they might
be from the trappings of civilization.

Conflict

Most wilderness territories dont simply drop in a

packs collective lap. Instead, packs have to work for these
territories, and hard, and that means building themselves
up to the point where they can challenge a territorys owners for control of the place. These rivals might be members
of the Pure, but, more often than not, they will be Forsaken (taking territory from the Pure is generally not a hot
idea, given that doing so invites reprisals both from the
vanquished pack and any allies they might be able to scare
up). This means any challenges that come to pass will be
as much political as physical, and this, in turn, means that
gaining a territory can amount to a story in and of itself.
If the characters do decide to wrest the territory from
the Pure, or if their challenge to a Forsaken pack becomes
physical, theyre in for a tough fight. This might seem odd
at first, given that the battle will take place in, well, the
wilderness. There are no potential witnesses, no innocent
bystanders to worry about, no noisome police officers making a nuisance of themselves. Where is the difficulty? The
answer lies in the fact that the current proprietors of the

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territory know its spiritscape in ways the troupe does not,
and said spiritscape is primal, hostile and difficult to navigate. Further, the troupe cannot scout the territory out
as the characters would in a city, since they cannot hide
behind the masses of humanity the characters foes will
quickly learn of any scouting attempts, and that means
that, when the time comes, the troupe will be fighting
blind. This makes a direct assault very dangerous.
Fortunately, the pitfalls of taking a wilderness territory
by force can be mitigated with a judicious amount of planning. If the pack can manage to woo a few local spirits to
the packs side, that will help matters enormously, and if the
packmembers can draw their foes into battle on their terms
(possibly even outside of the territory proper), the characters
can partially negate the enemy packs home field advantage. The troupe is in for a messy fight no matter what the
characters do, but they can make it a winnable fight if they
know their shit and have a fair bit of luck on their side.

S tewardship

Sometimes, owning a territory outright just isnt in the

cards. This is particularly true with wilderness territories,
since they are often areas controlled by local and/or regional
governments. In this case, the characters have to settle for
being unofficial stewards of the land, tending to the territory as best they can and doing their best to avoid official
entanglements. Tending these sorts of territories can be
exceptionally difficult; while its true that possession really
is nine-tenths of the law, the troupe will nonetheless have
to manage the territory without upsetting the local spirits
or humans or getting involved in annoying legal entanglements. This means that, in order to claim the territory, the
characters will have to be every bit as clever, subversive and
determined as they would be with an urban territory, since
they will have just as many constraints binding their actions.
Making a stewardship claim on a territory is tricky,
but not impossible. On the spiritual side of things, matters
are simple; spirits rarely have a firm grasp of human laws
and mores to begin with, and so they rarely give much
thought to the legal status of their home. The human side
of the equation is a bit trickier, as the characters will have
to do some research to determine what sorts of things they
can and cannot do in their new home. The characters
might need permits to even visit the land to begin with,
and they will certainly have more laws to deal with than
they would in other sorts of wilderness territories.
Legal entanglements aside, setting up shop on someone elses land is not without its perks. First and foremost
among them is the fact that the characters are not legally
responsible for maintaining the territory someone else
gets to pay taxes, arrange for upkeep and do all the other
things that go along with owning a territory. The characters are free to do whatever they want (so long as they
dont rock the boat), and this gives them a sort of freedom
that they wouldnt have in more traditional territories.
The characters can never truly call the territory their

92

own, but if they work at it, they can do a good job maintaining the territory just the same.

Feat ures

and

Advantages

Wilderness territories offer a staggering number of

advantages to a pack, and many of these are quite subtle.
Chief among these, of course, is privacy. Humans dont
tend to inhabit the forest in any appreciable numbers, and
that means an Uratha pack can go about its business relatively unmolested. No police will come chasing the packmembers at the first sign of trouble, and the supernatural
competition for common resources (such as loci) is greatly
reduced with the lack of those entities that rely on human
camouflage. The packmembers really are the top predators
in the wilderness, and that can be very empowering.
Apart from abundant privacy, wilderness territories may also offer a pack excellent hunting opportunities; indeed, good hunting is one of the primary reasons
werewolves want wilderness territories to begin with. Good
hunting is not, however, a given. Suburban territories that
run thick with deer in the eastern United States are prime
examples of good hunting territories, and the same is generally true for coastal territories (via fishing). Rainforests,
on the other hand, are not great territories for hunting
(this is particularly true if the prospective prey animals
are endangered), and deserts are right out. Even otherwise
idyllic hunting grounds might have low prey populations for
some reason (an outbreak of disease, for example). Still, if
properly managed, most wilderness territories can provide a
modicum of good hunting during at least part of the year.

Deer Populations R un Amok !

Apart from huntings role in maintaining
a characters Harmony, hunting in wilderness
territories is also an essential part of territory
maintenance. Since large predators are all but
extinct in many developed regions of the world
(particularly in the eastern United States and
most of Europe), the herbivore populations in
such regions rage out of control. Hungry deer
eat everything in sight, and, in doing so, retard
forest growth, destroy critical habitat for other
animals and eventually starve themselves into
oblivion. Controlling the growth of these herds
normally falls to civilian hunters and state and
regional game control officers, but theres no
reason a savvy werewolf pack cant work its
way into the system and do its part to help. This
results in a win-win situation for everyone: the
humans have fewer herbivores to manage, the
forests remain healthy and the werewolves gain
a steady food supply. Even the deer benefit, as
they receive a quick death at a werewolfs claws
instead of the slow death of starvation.

93

Wilderness Totems

If a werewolf pack wants a strong nature totem, the

wilderness is the place to go. Big predator-spirits are all
but gone, of course (this is particularly true with wolves,
but less so with bears and mountain lions), but many
other sorts of spirits exist in abundance. Snake-spirits are
common, for example, and they are skilled in the healing
arts. Tree-spirits are resilient (once you wake them up, at
least). Fox-spirits are rare and difficult to bring to heel,
but they teach extraordinary feats of cunning. Songbirdspirits know nothing of war, but they know more about
the health of the forest than anyone. Mustelid-spirits
(including weasels, ermines, otters, fishers, wolverines and
so on) are savage fighters, and skilled at overcoming great
obstacles. Even humble rodent-spirits have much to offer,
as they know a thing or two about the territorys secret
places.
The trick with wilderness-spirits, of course, is the fact
that they are only comfortable in, well, the wilderness. If
the pack travels to the city for some reason (and the pack
will likely have ample reason to do so over the course of a
chronicle), the spirit will feel weakened and generally out
of sorts. The pack would thus be well-advised to keep its
urban adventures to a minimum, and to make them short
and sweet when they do come up.

Loci

Wilderness loci differ from urban loci in many

respects, chief among these being the nature of their
formation. While urban loci form as a result of strong
human emotion (or perhaps due to the actions of other
supernaturals), wilderness loci form more often due to
wholly naturalistic processes. This means wilderness loci
form more slowly, since the needed Essence takes longer to
accumulate, but they are every bit as potent and useful as
their urban counterparts. General descriptions of a variety
of wilderness loci are given below, as well as examples of
each.

The Cave
This locus has been used by predators for quite some
time, as it offers protection from the elements, easy access
to several good hunting grounds and plenty of privacy.
Perhaps a pack of wolves has used the cave as a den, or
perhaps a bear uses it every winter to hibernate. Regardless, the cave has become a locus of primal emotions, and
is thus appealing to werewolves.
The Bear Den
Rating:
Resonance: Security
Bears have used this cave as a den for many years,
hiding themselves from the world during the winter and
sheltering cubs here during the spring. This has continued
for generations, and the bears that use the cave today are
of the same line as those that began using the cave all
those years ago. It radiates feelings of comfort and security,

and attracts spirits of the same type. The cave is present in

the Hisil, and has been there long enough to form a Glade.
Numerous bear-spirits defend the Glade from interlopers,
and they are immune to the Glades effects when doing so.

The Water H ole

Everything has to drink sooner or later, and this
makes water sources such as lakes and streams surprisingly
strong reservoirs of spiritual power. Feelings of satisfaction
and contentment abound, the end result of animals slaking their thirst, and, in some areas, the locus might even
feel somewhat playful a bear and her cubs might have
spent the summer here, or perhaps a wolf pack chased
ravens back and forth during the winter. Regardless, such
loci tend to focus heavily on themes of rest and rejuvenation.
The Babbling Brook
Rating:
Resonance: Rest
This innocuous little brook sees an awful lot of activity, and because of this, the brook has accumulated enough
spiritual energy to form a small locus. Animals of all sorts
stop here to drink, rest for a short while and then move
on. The spiritscape reflects this activity in an unusual
fashion: any spirit may stop by to drink from the locus, but
none may remain long enough to drain it. In game terms,
spirits and werewolves alike may gain only one Essence
from the locus, no matter how many successes they roll
when making the attempt. They then feel an overwhelming urge to move on (they can spend a Willpower point to
resist the urge, but there isnt much point).

The M ountain Peak

Mountain peaks are often home to powerful loci,
though it is unclear how they grow in strength and power.
They may gain power simply by enduring, and that they
need no other explanation. The least of these are Rank 3
in power, while the strongest are Rank 5. Note that these
loci are found only on mountain peaks; the mountains
themselves are home to great power, but it is not focused
enough to be usable as a locus.
The Alpine Meadow
Rating:
Resonance: Power
Easily one of the most powerful loci in the world,
this mountain wilderness is resplendent in its glory. The
surrounding mountain peaks are achingly beautiful, the
skies are a rich azure hue and the animals themselves regal
and magnificent. Even in the physical world, one can feel
the raw power of the place, ensuring that this locus will be
the crown jewel in the territory of anyone bold enough to
claim it. Doing so will not be easy, however; a number of
powerful Jagglings call the locus their own, and they have
no intention of yielding it to anyone much less an upstart pack of werewolves with entitlement issues without one hell of a fight. On the upside, those Jagglings are

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Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

the only foes the werewolves will have to face; no other
spirits dare set foot in the place, as the Jagglings would eat
them for breakfast.

The Ancient Tree

This is an unusual sort of locus, since its stationary
(as most loci are) and yet is centered on a living thing
(meaning it has a spirit of its own). The spirit within the
tree is awakened when it becomes a locus, and that means
this particular fount of power cannot simply be claimed
the tree must be bargained with. To gain control of the
locus and drink of its power, a spirit (or, as the case may
be, a werewolf pack) must gain the tree-spirits trust and
goodwill. This is difficult even for spirits, and particularly
so for werewolves. Happily, most ancient tree loci are powerful enough that theyre well worth the bother.
Great Sequoia
Rating:
Resonance: Wild
Great Sequoia is a spirit as well as a locus, and some
say hes actually the first tree-spirit ever born. As the
years rolled by and his power grew, he changed in form to
become as the sequoias are, magnificent and tall. Since
his locus is bound to a spirit instead of a place, his locus
is highly protected, and thus not freely accessible. Many
spirits would like to control him, of course, but when an
Incarna says no theres not much you can do about it.
Great Sequoia will share his Essence with those he deems
worthy, but thats a fairly select bunch; fewer than a dozen
spirits receive his blessing each generation, and, while
Uratha packs have managed to gain his favor in the past,
they are few and far between.

spirits would also help matters along enormously.

But the main factor is time. It takes time to earn
an Incarnas trust, and doing so in this case might
be the capstone to a long and glorious chronicle.
Description: Great Sequoia is tall. Nobodys
quite sure just how tall; his physical form is
that of a giant sequoia tree, but his spirit form
well, nobody knows. He is very tall. He is also
extremely powerful and impossibly old, with
gnarled branches and deep, deep roots and a
trunk the size of a house. Irritating him would be
unwise.
Great Sequoia
Rank: 5
Attributes: Power 1 5; Finesse 1 2; Resistance 1 5
Willpower: 3 0
Essence: 5 0 (max 5 0)
Initiative: 27
Defense: 1 5
Speed: 27 (tree)
Size: 20
Corpus: 35
Influences: Forest
Numina: Chorus, Elemental Mastery, Insight Mastery, Material Vision, Nature Mastery, Reaching,
Weather Mastery, Wilds Sense
Insight Mastery: Great Sequoia can use all
Insight Gifts as Numina. This Numen counts as
two Numina for purposes of spirit creation, and is
available only to spirits of Rank 5 o r higher.
Nature Mastery: Great Sequoia can use all
Nature Gifts as Numina. This Numen counts as
two Numina for purposes of spirit creation, and
is available only to spirits of Rank 5 o r higher.

Great Sequoia
Great Sequoia was born with the first redwood, and he has remained rooted in the ground
ever since. That was a long time ago. He was
ancient when humanity was a bunch of chattering apes, and, to him, the Uratha are young
punks who are generally beneath his notice.
Uratha dont take kindly to that, but, well, hes an
Incarna, so he doesnt really care. What he does
care about is his forest. If the Uratha manage to
impress him, hell at least deal with them. If they
really manage to impress him, he might even let
them drink a bit of his locus Essence. But thats
unlikely.
Getting Great Sequoias attention is a matter
of patience and perseverance, as well as unwavering dedication. A werewolf must prove to him
that she belongs in his forest before hell consider
her worthy of his patronage, and that will take
a long, long time. There are no specific benchmarks in game terms, but a healthy investment in
Wisdom renown and Nature Gifts wouldnt hurt.
Gaining the respect of the bulk of the forests

94

H umans

One of the nice things about wilderness territories is

the fact that people are, for the most part, relatively rare.
The teeming throngs of the city are almost entirely absent
in the wilderness, and even state-managed parks and
forest only receive a fraction of a citys population in any
given year. This makes the territorys human population
relatively easy to manage, even if there are occasionally a
few bad apples that desperately need pruning.

Spirit ual Connect ions

In urban territories, spirits influence, and in turn

are influenced by, the presence and actions of human
beings. This influence is greatly reduced, if not entirely
eliminated, in wilderness territories. The spirits there are
much more primal, and often much simpler in the way
they do things. This does not mean they are friendly, of
course; indeed, if anything they are more hostile toward
the Uratha than their urban kin, since these Uratha are

95
more likely to remember the way things ought to be. But
their goals and desires are easier to understand, and this
can make life much easier on a pack seeking to claim the
territory as its own.

Terrain

While its true that many wilderness territories have

great spiritual power to offer, its also true that that power
is next to useless if it cannot be easily defended. Sometimes this amounts to natural defenses, such as rocky
fortifications, shifting quagmires or tall trees that offer
good vantage points. Just as often, however, a pack will
look for the means to enhance the territory to suit the
packs purposes. If the packmembers are free to build in
and tinker with the territory as they see fit, the pack will
naturally find the territory much more attractive. If such
building would invite unwelcome scrutiny, however (as
might be the case in a national forest or park), the pack
may be forced to abandon it even if it is appealing for
other reasons.

Sample Personae

Even a wilderness has residents, and an expanding

pack will need to get to know them if the pack hopes to
manage the territory effectively. These residents run the
gamut from ordinary civilians to government employees to
all manner of supernatural folk. Some examples are given
below.

Government E mployees

Government employees generally have a small but

powerful presence in wilderness territories, and they
are the ones who are most influential when it comes to
a territorys development. They often clash with local
residents over land use issues, and, as a result, many locals
have no love for the government and its interfering ways.
This does not make such representatives bad people,
naturally; they are simply stuck in the unenviable position
of enforcing local and regional laws that might have been
written by people who live far, far away.
Government employees are typically legal-minded
people who are looking to manage, protect or otherwise
administer a territory, and they often become embroiled in
local controversies because their goals conflict with those
of local residents. Examples include federal employees
(such as members of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service),
local/state employees (such as members of state departments of natural resources), park rangers (typically tied
to the USDA Forest Service) and intermediaries working with native groups (such as officers in the Bureau of
Indian Affairs).

Out door Enthusiast s

In contrast to government employees, outdoor

enthusiasts typically show more interest in enjoying the
outdoors and less in worrying about public policy. The

problem is that different people enjoy the great outdoors

in different ways, and this occasionally brings them into
conflict with one another. Some people enjoy hiking and
bird watching, while others enjoy extreme sports, hunting
and outdoor recreation. Most of the time they can manage
to get along, but sometimes their interests conflict particularly once endangered species enter the mix.
Members of the troupe might have any number of
opinions on these issues, but theyll have to deal with
tourists one way or the other no matter their personal
beliefs. The pack will have to figure out who is using their
land, how theyre using it and what that means for the
Hisil and their own Uratha-related activities.

Permanent Resident s

No matter where you go in the world, you can generally find someone living nearby. This is the inevitable
result of large-scale human expansion, and the Uratha
have to deal with it for better or worse. To this end, it
would behoove a werewolf pack to learn as much as possible about the permanent residents living within their
territory, as these individuals will typically have a much
greater impact on the Hisil than any visitors could ever
hope to manage.
Examples of permanent residents include the old man
living in a cabin by the lake, the proprietor of the local
market, the researcher whos involved in a long-term study
of the local wildlife and the park ranger who spends most
of his waking hours maintaining the forest.

Wolf-Bloods

In contrast to most territories, virtually anyone in a

wilderness territory has the potential to be wolf-blooded.
Whether theyre visitors or permanent residents, government employees or scientists or local proprietors, everyone
in the territory is presumably there because something
about the wilderness calls to them. The classic trope
here is the park ranger, but that is only one among many.
Think about the group of rock climbers who visits from
the city every weekend to get back to nature, or the
drifter who crashes in the trailer park and never quite gets
around to moving on or the survival nut who thinks the
governments out to get him and turns his cabin into a
fortified bunker. The possibilities are endless.

E xpansion O pt ions

Since wilderness territories tend to have fuzzy borders

to begin with, expansion (or contraction) is a matter of
course. Federal and state legislation changes (changing
peoples ability to modify their properties), borders of
national parks and forests are redrawn and parcels of land
are bought up by NGOs or private individuals either for
conservation or private, regulated use. Things change
among werewolves as well; rivals increase their power,
the Pure make trouble for everyone and the characters

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themselves become better equipped to do their jobs. They
may or may not have control over these sorts of changes;
it depends on whether or not they own the territory outright, and how much influence they have over the people
who use it.

Simple E xpansion

Sometimes, a pack has to start small just to get a handle on properly managing the local Hisil. If the characters
are inexperienced, and have little influence in the worlds
of humanity and the Forsaken, they cant expect to find
and control an ideal territory right off the bat. But once
they become more experienced, and learn how to properly
manage spirits, werewolves and humans, the characters
might well find that they can control larger and larger
territories with no real loss in efficacy. Uratha are rarely
given the luxury to expand on their own, but if the pack is
lucky enough to have a wide territory open to them, then
so much the better.

Conquest

While overt battles with the Pure are relatively rare,

small skirmishes are another matter. As the characters
begin to establish themselves as Uratha of note, the Pure
will be an ever-present thorn in the characters sides
one the characters will only tolerate for so long. If a
Pure pack happens to share a border with the troupes
territory, the time will come when the troupe wants to
silence the Pure once and for all. If the troupe manages
to do so, the characters can add the Pure packs territory to their own, and deal with all of the problems that
entails. This can be a challenging task; the Pures idea of
a well-maintained spirit world differs markedly from that
of the Forsaken, and the spirits may not like being forced
to change their ways. By contrast, the human population
might be accustomed to being battered and traumatized,
and the influence of their fear on the Hisil might be a
challenge even for veteran werewolves.

Rivals

The median case between simple expansion and conflict with the Pure, gaining land via conflict with rivals is
also the most likely scenario the troupe may encounter. As
the characters gain influence within local Uratha society,
they will gain the clout needed to challenge their rivals for
bigger and bigger pieces of the territory pie. They will also
gain the skills they need to make good on their territorial challenges. This can be problematic, however, if not
handled carefully. First and foremost are simple legal concerns you cant simply waltz onto somebodys property
and steal it from them. Even in the wilderness, word will
get around. And while eliminating a Pure pack might go
relatively unnoticed, attempting the same on a Forsaken
pack just isnt in the cards. This means seizing a rivals territory has to be handled legally, and very carefully; this in

96

turn makes the task a challenging endeavor. Fortunately,

an expanded territory is usually worth it.

Potent ial Threat s

The typical forest is filled with potential threats,

ranging from crazed or territorial spirits to rabid animals
to human interlopers. Few forests will have all of these
threats, of course, but a healthy sampling of the various
possibilities is presented here to serve as inspiration to
players and Storytellers alike.

Forest-Spirit s

There are many types of forest-spirits, and most of

them are unfriendly. The spirits here are divided into two
main categories: spirits of the land, which include both
tree-spirits and more generic forest-spirits, and wildlifespirits, which are consumed either with doing what their
kind does or with taking vengeance on whatever happened to kill one of their ilk.
At one time, forest-spirits might have been well,
not benevolent, but certainly less openly hostile than they
are now. Before humanity and its passions spiraled out of
control, forest-spirits were disturbed only by age or the
occasional natural disaster. With humanitys growth and
development, however, these spirits are constantly under
siege. Humans harvest them directly for timber and fuel
wood, and, because of this, the forests and their way of life
are shrinking dramatically as time goes by. The spirits are
unhappy about this.
Direct consumption is the most direct cause of the
forests destruction, but is not alone in its effects. Since
humans, in their infinite wisdom, decided to wage a war
on predators in decades past, the herbivores the predators
controlled deer mostly now overrun the forests, eating everything in sight. While deer are supposedly a part
of nature, the truth of the matter is that the forest is not
built to spec; if something goes wrong, the forest does not
have a divine hand looking to set things right. And so the
forests are harmed by humanitys shortsightedness as well
as humanitys greed. They are unhappy about this as well.

Forest Lords (H ur Dir En)

Forest Lords are powerful Jagglings that watch over
and protect entire forests. Forest Lords are keenly aware of
the goings-on within their domain, and are effectively a
gestalt of the numerous tree-spirits within the forest, the
animals that inhabit it and the land on which it rests. At
one time, Forest Lords were much more powerful, but usually quiescent; they were content to slumber most of the
time. As forests have shrunk in size in modern times, however, more and more tree-spirits have awoken. These, in
turn, whether by accident or design, began to waken the
Forest Lords of which the tree-spirits were a part. Some
Forest Lords have fallen into a state of violent despair, and
now pose a threat to anything that trespasses within their
chosen woods.

97
Forest Lords are neither hostile nor benign; they are
at once predatory and weak, beautiful and hideous, violent
and calm. They are not capricious beings, mind, just
complicated. This complexity makes them extremely difficult to understand, and even canny Ithaeur must exercise
great caution when dealing with Forest Lords.
Description: No two Forest Lords look alike. One
might appear as a great stag, another as a wandering treespirit, and still another as a chimeric beast. Some have
even appeared as human beings, typically from tribes that
are strongly attuned to the forest and its inhabitants. No
matter a Forest Lords appearance, the Forest Lords has a
powerful presence that commands respect.
Rank: 4
Attributes: Power 1 2; Finesse 9; Resistance 1 2
Willpower: 24
Essence: 25 (max 25 )
Initiative: 21
Defense: 1 2
Speed: 21 ( or 31 f or highly mobile spirits)
Size: Variable
Corpus: 1 7+
Influences: Forest
Numina: Blast, Call Water, Discorporation, Forest
Communion, Harrow, Materialize, Material Vision, Natures Vengeance, Plant Growth, Reaching, Speak With Beasts, Wilds Sense
Blast: This manifests differently for each
Forest Lord. A humanoid spirit might throw
a spear, while weather-oriented spirits
might let fly with bolts of lightning. If
appropriate, a Numen more appropriate
for the spirits form may be substituted for
blast. A stag might have Furious Charge
(described below), for instance, while a wolf
might have Death Grip. Chimeric spirits can
have just about anything.
Call Water: As the one-dot Elemental Gift.
Forest Communion: As the three-dot Nature Gift.
Natures Vengeance: As the five-dot Nature Gift.
The Forest Lord need not roll to activate this Numen; doing so is automatic. If the spirit spends
an extra Essence, the Numen is treated as an
exceptional success.
Plant Growth: As the two-dot Nature Gift.
Speak With Beasts: As the one-dot Nature
Gift.
Note that more unusual wilderness-spirits might
have different arrays of Numina. The lord of a desert
might have Weather Gifts, for instance.
Ban: While Forest Lords must certainly have a ban,
the exact nature of said ban varies considerably from
spirit to spirit, and is always difficult to discern. Some
wonder if Forest Lords are banned from interacting productively with others, but most agree that, while it would
fit the facts of their interactions reasonably well, such a
ban would be perverse, at best.

Broken Tooth (Ziira Zu)

Broken Tooth is a savage puma-spirit, spawned by
victims of the war on predators that swept America during
the early part of the 20th century. Every time a puma fell
to a hunters traps, Broken Tooth became a little bit stronger, to the point where it has now become a lesser Jaggling
stalking whats left of North Americas forests. It is a
hungry spirit, but it pays no mind to other spirits, animals
or even werewolves; only the blood of hunters can slake
Broken Tooths thirst, and these it pursues with awesome
determination.
Broken Tooth is a spirit of violence, but he is not one
thats likely to bother werewolves so long as they leave
him alone. If they interfere with his hunts he will attack
them, but otherwise he doesnt really care what they do.
Its worth noting that he does make a distinction between
those who kill for food and those who kill for sport/money;
he wont attack Uratha who hunt their prey as wolves, but
he will attack those who hunt using firearms, traps or the
like.

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Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

While Broken Tooth is a North American spirit, similar spirits roam the wilds of Siberia (in the form of rabid
wolves), Central Europe (speculation by those in the know
indicates that the legendary Beast of Gevaudin might
have been one such spirit) and Africa (though perhaps
these are simply the ghosts of the infamous man-eaters
Ghost and Darkness). All of them share similar statistics.
Description: Broken Tooth appears as a powerfully
built mountain lion with a broken lower tooth. Its fur is
mangy, and it often bears the scars of a hunters traps: bullet holes, mangled paws from bear traps, contorted muscles
as a result of exposure to strychnine and so on. It weighs
in excess of 300 pounds.
Rank: 3
Attributes: Power 9; Finesse 9; Resistance 7
Willpower: 1 6
Essence: 20 (max 20)
Initiative: 1 6
Defense: 9
Speed: 3 0
Size: 5
Corpus: 1 2
Influences: Wrath
Numina: Discorporation, Harrow, Materialize, Material
Vision, Reaching
Ban: Despite its thirst for hunters blood, Broken Tooth
cannot abide the blood of innocents. It will not attack a
foe who has never killed another (though another in this
case is interpreted fairly loosely).

H ungry-D eer-Spirit s (S tarvedoes,

Sasuha Lulim)
Legend holds that at one time, the greatest of deerspirits were mighty stags that aided tribes of humans either
in battle or during great hunts. Frequently, however, deerspirits of a different sort have been manifesting spirits
of greed and gluttony. These spirits are especially common
in the forests of the upper Midwest in the United States,
but these spirits can be found in forests around the world.
Starvedoes rarely interact much with humans or
other supernaturals, since these spirits are fed primarily by
the multitudes of deer infesting modern forests. Starvedoes will fiercely protect the lives of deer under the spirits
influence, and will lash out at anything, human, animal or
otherwise, that threatens a deers life. Since these spirits
also urge deer to consume as much as possible, Uratha typically view Starvedoes as pests that must be exterminated.
Description: Hungry-Deer-Spirits appear to be ordinary deer, but for one minor detail: they do not appear to
have a stomach or intestines. Rather, their ribcage gives
way to an empty hole, and, therefore, the spirits appear to
be almost comically incomplete. Their appetites for foliage
are endless, but every time they eat, the masticated food
falls out of their torsos soon thereafter.
Rank: 3
Attributes: Power 7; Finesse 7; Resistance 5

98

Willpower: 1 2
Essence: 20 (max 20)
Initiative: 1 2
Defense: 7
Speed: 26
Size: 6
Corpus: 1 1
Influences: Consumption
Numina: Discorporation, Flight of the Stag, Furious
Charge, Living Fetter (deer only), Materialize, Material
Vision, Mighty Bound, Wilds Sense
Flight of the Stag: As the two-dot Father Wolf Gift
Father Wolfs Speed.
Furious Charge: By spending an Essence point, the Hungry-Deer-Spirit doubles its damage on a successful charge
attack. The Essence is spent before the attack is resolved,
and the Numens effects last for one turn.
Mighty Bound: As the two-dot Strength Gift.
Ban: The Hungry-Deer-Spirit must eat, and it must eat
continuously. While it may strike out at those who harm
deer or to defend itself, it may engage in no other activities.

Senile -Bear-Spirit (Old D ullfang,

Lifir Lilthimsa)
There can be few fates worse in the world than losing
ones mind. To know you were once vital and alive, capable of so much more than you are now that is surely
the height of despair. Sadly, such a fate is not limited to
humans. Spirits occasionally experience such things as
well, often as a result of some great trauma. Such is the
case with the senile-bear-spirit.
At one time, this bear-spirit was like any other; it
claimed a spirit Glade as its own, sought to consume other
bear-spirits to increase its power and eventually hoped to
inherit guardianship of a much larger Glade the whole
of its forest home. Unfortunately, such was not to be;
thanks to a combination of human interference and untimely natural disasters, the spirits Glade was completely
destroyed, and the spirits dreams of spiritual ascension
permanently derailed. Madness is all that is left to it now.
Old Dullfang is hostile and unpredictable; it will lash
out at anyone who approaches it, rending them to pieces
with supernaturally potent claws. It cannot be appeased,
for its dreams and desires are little more than ashes now.
A sufficiently motivated Uratha pack might be able to
bind it to a new spirit Glade, but even that is a challenge
of heroic proportions; the bears madness has consumed it
utterly, making recovery all but impossible.
Rank: 3
Attributes: Power 9; Finesse 7; Resistance 9
Willpower: 1 8
Essence: 20 (max 20)
Initiative: 1 6
Defense: 9
Speed: 2 2

99

Feral Uratha

Size: 7
Corpus: 1 6
Influences: Madness (Note that applying its influences
will generally be an unconscious act; the bear hasnt the
wits to act with any real intent.)
Numina: Death Grip, Discorporation, Forest Communion,
Harrow, Materialize, Material Vision, Rage Armor, Savage
Rending, Wilds Sense
Death Grip: As the three-dot Full Moon Gift.
Forest Communion: As the three-dot Nature Gift. This
Numen is activated with a 4 penalty given the bears current state.
Rage Armor: As the four-dot Full Moon Gift.
Savage Rending: As the four-dot Father Wolf Gift.
Ban: The spirits madness has effectively become its ban.
Clarity of thought is denied Old Dullfang until someone
manages to calm its insanity.

People in the wilderness dont tend to talk to one

another much, and because of that, the few who happen to Change generally know little, if anything,
about the Uratha (to say nothing of the Forsaken
or the Pure). Naturally, this can make these
newly Changed ripe for conversion, but unless
a Forsaken or Pure pack happens to be in the
area when the werewolf Changes, such a happy
event is unlikely. Instead, the nascent werewolf
has to navigate his new identity all by his
lonesome, and that can lead to some rather
peculiar Ghost Wolves.
Feral Uratha tend to keep to themselves,
as is the norm for werewolves of all stripes. If
the feral Uratha have been in the territory
for a while when the troupe claims it,
they might be well along on the road
to madness, or they might have come
to some accord with their werewolf
natures and the newly discovered spirit
world. Either way, theyll have their own
ideas about how an Uratha ought to behave, and they might react strongly to the
presence of an entire pack of werewolves in
their territory.
Not surprisingly, feral Uratha are generally no match for a pack of Forsaken; Ghost
Wolves have little understanding of the
spirit world, and hence no real affinity
with Gifts or other spirit resources. More
importantly, these feral Uratha have no
pack to call their own, and this means
they lack the unity and strength that
comes with a pack. This does not
mean, however, that they do not
represent a threat; the fact that they
do not understand their true natures
means they know nothing of the Lunacy or the
need for secrecy, and this means they might attract all
sorts of unwanted attention (both for themselves and any
other werewolves in the area). This in turn means that
they have to be dealt with quickly and quietly, and doing
this in a way that maintains a werewolfs Harmony might
prove to be difficult, at best.

Government Agent s

Packs that claim wilderness territories have an advantage when it comes to dealing with the government, since
its agencies are primarily concerned with policing human
affairs which, in turn, means the agencies focus most
of their attention on cities and suburbs. This has changed
somewhat in recent years, however; survivalist camps
might be training camps for terrorists, after all, and, with
the increasing technological sophistication of the worlds

The Forested Wilderness

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

governments, hiding bizarre activities from prying eyes is
becoming increasing harder and harder.
Government agents might turn their eyes to the pack
for any number of reasons. If the pack eliminated a human
for some reason, the agents might show up to investigate.
Alternately, the agents might be acting as proxies for more
influential people who know, or at least suspect, that there
are supernatural agencies at work in the area. Either way
these sorts of agents will ask many questions, and they will
not go away. Eliminating them will, naturally, raise even
more questions, and create a nightmare the characters will
be hardpressed to escape.
Government agents are a threat primarily because of
the resources they can bring to bear when dealing with
a problematic situation. Most dont know anything about
the supernatural, of course, but some do indeed, there
might be shadow agencies running around explicitly dedicated to rooting out and dealing with supernatural threats.
This means the Uratha do not have anonymity on their
side, and that their hunters might be able to bring serious
firepower to bear when bringing them down.

Survivalist H umans

The wilderness has a habit of attracting humans who

want little to do with human society, and, for the most
part, these people are a non-issue. They may not be happy,
law-abiding sorts, but they keep to themselves and mind
their own business. Some, however, take it upon themselves to mount a pro-active program of self-defense, and
that means neutralizing any potential threats before they
have the opportunity to do harm. Naturally, werewolves
count as one such potential threat.
Most of these self-styled survivalists operate alone,
since getting away from other people was part of the
reason survivalists entered the wilderness to begin with.
These are no real threat to werewolves; between the Lunacy and a werewolfs supernatural toughness, the humans
are little more than irritants. Sometimes, however, a
number of individuals will band together, and this is when
they start to become dangerous. Between sharing information (often of dubious accuracy), silver bullets and, perhaps
most importantly, good ol human ingenuity, a band of
survivalists can be a real problem for a werewolf pack.
Their martial dangers aside, survivalists are dangerous
for another reason: they tend to attract attention. While
most authorities dont take survivalists seriously (writing
them off as trigger-happy nutcases and the like), they can
still catch the ear of tabloid journalists, government agencies that do take the supernatural seriously and even other
supernatural threats, such as the Pure and the spirits they
serve. This makes survivalists a threat the pack cannot ignore, and also means the pack has to deal with that threat
in a timely fashion.

100

Earthen Vengeance

Earthen Vengeance is a pack of young Predator

Kings, all of them possessed of a burning hatred for the
modern world and all that it entails. Bound together by
their extremist ideology, they have embarked on a crusade
to undo the works of humanity in all their varied forms
one corrupt individual at a time. The impossibility of
their task means nothing to these Predator Kings; they
have been bathed in the fires of purity and righteousness,
and nothing will sway them from their path.
Although they have enjoyed great success in their
efforts so far, the packs extremism has earned it few
friends even among the ranks of the Pure. While the
packmembers passion is admirable, their methods are
so troublesome that few can bear to have them around
for long; so it is that they hop from territory to territory,
stirring up trouble in the spirit world even as they slay the
humans that so offend them. The path they follow clearly
will ultimately consume them, but, until it does, they will
continue to bring havoc to the lives of all who encounter
them.
Currently, the pack has taken refuge in a cave or
a sheltered valley on the outskirts of the troupes territory, and it is from here that the packmembers will begin
to work their magic on the forest within. This work
consists of awakening the spirits of the forest and sending
them on a spiritual rampage, destroying the works of Man
whenever possible and killing humans who have any association with modern civilization (which basically amounts
to any humans they encounter). The packmembers will
show particular interest in factories, timber mills, housing projects and anything else they feel is intruding upon
the sanctity of the forest. This, naturally, includes other
Uratha, who, of course, know nothing about properly
managing a forest territory. The pack is bound together by
The Antlered Devourer, a monstrous stag-spirit that feeds
on the bodies of humans who have been buried alive.

Gabriel Ward
Gabriel Ward is the charismatic alpha of Earthen
Vengeance, and he is easily the most seasoned member
of the pack. Before his Change, he was an environmental studies major at UC Berkeley, and even then he was
unstable; he had unhealthy ties to fringe environmental
groups, most of whom were more interested in acts of violence than in effecting any real change in the world. Once
the Predator Kings recruited him and opened his eyes to
the real history of the world, his crusader tendencies only
intensified; he set out to scour humanity from the face of
the planet, and recruited a number of violent Predator
Kings fresh from initiation to aid him in his work.
Gabriels efforts to date have resulted in considerable loss of life, and untold amounts of property damage.

101
The human authorities are naturally quite interested in
detaining both him and his pack, but thanks to the use of
Gifts, rites and clever planning, hes managed to escape
capture thus far (the fact that his pack interacts with human civilization as little as possible naturally helps a great
deal). His luck may be running out, however; hes angered
an awful lot of people, and many of them have supernatural allies. He may think he can do no wrong, but its only a
matter of time before his delusions slam into the brick wall
of reality.
Tribe: Predator Kings
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 2, Resolve 2
Physical Attributes: Strength 3 (4/6/5/3 ), Dexterity 2
(2 /3 /4/4), Stamina 3 (4/5/5/4)
Social Attributes: Presence 3 , Manipulation 4 (3 /4/1 /4),
Composure 2
Mental Skills: Academics (Environmental Studies) 2, Occult (The Hisil) 2
Physical Skills: Brawl 3 , Stealth 2, Survival 2

Social Skills: Animal Ken 1 , Empathy 2, Expression 3 , Persuasion (Oratory) 3 , Subterfuge 2

Merits: Language (First Tongue) 1 , Totem 2
Primal Urge: 3
Willpower: 4
Harmony: 5
Max Essence/Per Turn: 1 2 /1
Virtue: Fortitude
Vice: Wrath
Health: 8 (1 0/1 2 /1 1 /8)
Initiative: 4 (4/5/6/6)
Defense: 2 (2 /3 /4/4)
Speed: 1 0 (1 1 /1 4/1 7/1 5 )
Renown: Glory 1 , Honor 1 , Purity 2
Gifts: (1 ) Speak With Beasts, The Right Words, Warning
Growl, Wolf-Bloods Lure; (2) Father Wolfs Speed, Sand
in the Eyes
Rituals: 3; Rites: (1 ) Rite of Dedication, Shared Scent; (2)
Call Gaffling, Cleansed Blood; (3) Wake the Spirit

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Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

The City Block

One of the most common Uratha territory types
and certainly the most familiar, the urban city block is in
many ways the archetype of modern werewolf territories.
The city block offers a balanced mix of human and spiritual needs, and of the physical world and the Hisil they so
greatly influence. Thus, the roleplaying opportunities the
city block offers are nearly endless. But what is an urban
territory, really? What is at stake when one is maintaining
it? What rewards does it offer, and how might a savvy pack
reap them?

Anatomy

of a

Cit y

An urban werewolfs territory is influenced by a number of different factors, and the most important of these is
location. Most cities are not uniform in their construction;
they have areas dedicated to commercial enterprises, to
industry and to living space, and werewolf territories will
naturally vary considerably according to which area they
happen to inhabit. Territories are also heavily influenced
by local history; an old, rundown neighborhood will have
a very different character from a recently renovated one,
and this affects both the spiritscape and the general attitudes of the people living in each. Packs must understand
both of these factors and how they interrelate if the packs
are to make any sense of the territories at their disposal.

Zoning Issues

There are many sorts of urban zones in a typical modern city, and virtually all of them are suitable for werewolf
territories of one sort or another. Some zones are industrial, and dedicated solely to manufacturing concerns. Some
are commercial, and filled with businesses and the support
structures that cater to them. Some are recreational,
dedicated to parks and entertainment. Some are purely
residential, seeking only to house the citys residents. And
some zones are municipal, working to protect and manage
the city and promote issues of interest to all. Understanding how these various zones interact, as well as how that
interaction affects the people and spirits within a territory,
is crucial if a pack hopes to manage a territory effectively.

Industrial Zones
A citys industrial sectors are dedicated to the manufacture of various goods, and may be subdivided into light,
moderate or heavy industrial zones. These are the bread
and butter of a citys economy; they may not be terribly
flashy, but without them, the city would wither and die.

102

The industries involved vary considerably; they may be as

simple as a paper mill or an automobile plant, or as sophisticated as a scientific research complex.
No matter their form, industrial zones are founts of
creation; whether making paper or cars or scientific research, these zones are always dedicated to the creation of
some end product. As a result, both the zones themselves
and the Hisil they shape are unusually dynamic. Packs
claiming a territory in such a zone will find that spirits of
creation, transformation and growth dominate the area,
and that nothing remains the same for long. While this
is not a bad thing in and of itself, it can make managing
a territory in such an area difficult, and it is something
packs need to bear in mind when setting up shop.

Commercial Zones
While industrial zones are dedicated to the manufacture of various goods, commercial zones are dedicated
to buying, selling and moving such goods. This is where
the bulk of the middle- and upper-class citizens of the
city come to work each day, staffing restaurants, business
offices, shopping malls and so on and so forth, and their
drudgery leads to the tedium that defines much of modern
existence in the Western world. Their work is so far removed from the actual creation and use of the goods they
manage that they often feel disconnected, both from the
world they live in and from one another. This, naturally,
has implications for the spirit world.
The spirits of commerce are many and varied, but
they are most commonly associated with feelings of greed,
frustration or tedium. In most cases, this makes these
spirits remarkably easy to deal with; they are so bored
that simply piquing their curiosity or, in the worst case,
bribing them is all one needs to do to ensure their compliance. This is not always the case, however; in some areas,
particularly those associated with handling money and
making important decisions, the spirits are as cutthroat
and Darwinian as can be. Their ability to exert their influence in such areas is staggering, and even seasoned Uratha
packs find them difficult to manage. It should come as no
great surprise, then, to learn that werewolf territories in
such dynamic commercial areas are extremely rare.

Recreat ion Zones

Recreational areas include city parks, stadiums,
museums, concert halls and other areas of common public
use. People visit such areas to rest and to have fun, and
they are unique in the fact that people from all walks of

103
life interact freely while using them. No matter a persons
background, he can enjoy a ballgame or an art exhibit just
as much as anyone else, so recreational areas tend to be
more dynamic and interesting than other zones.
The spirit world of recreational zones tends to be
rather innocuous, since the spirits that accumulate there
are more interested in having fun than in wreaking havoc.
Still, they can be a rowdy bunch; no one likes being
told what to do, and this is especially true when youre
hanging out in an area where people come to play. While
this is not cause in and of itself to dismiss such territories
outright, it should be enough to give a nascent pack pause
when considering its options. Recreational areas are fun
and light-hearted, but managing them can be a real hassle.

Resident ial Zones

Easily the most common form of urban werewolf territory, residential areas are the places where people come
to rest after they are finished with their work and play.
Such zones come in several different forms, ranging from
single-family homes to large apartment complexes. These
zones are more focused than other zones, since residential
zones are concerned solely with providing living space for
people; how they do this isnt as important as the fact that,
at the end of the day, all people must sleep. This makes
residential zones easy to understand, and, while they may
not be the most exciting of areas, they are nonetheless the
ones most in need of a werewolfs attention.
The spirit world of residential areas is complex. All
of a persons hopes and dreams and nightmares take
flight when she goes to sleep at night, and these create a
potpourri of resonance that interacts strangely with that
of everyone else in the neighborhood. The name of the
game here is subtlety; a werewolf pack might find peace
and tranquility around the home of a serial killer, or chaos
and madness around the home of a seemingly ordinary
housewife. The only constant is that no one is who he
appears to be, and that vigilance is a must if the troupe
hopes to make sense of the ever-changing chaos so typical
of these areas.

M unicipal Zones
Difficult to understand and nightmarish to manage,
municipal zones encompass all elements of the city that
might be considered the public sector. The police, fire
department, city council, utilities, postal service, justice
department and many other local and state institutions
are all municipal sites, and they are scattered about the
city as needed so that they can maintain order and facilitate interaction among the other zones. Most also interact
with the bulk of the citys population in one fashion or another, and, in so doing, they serve to link people together
who might otherwise never have cause to interact with
one another. This interconnectivity is part of what makes
managing municipal areas so difficult.
The spiritscape of municipal areas is likewise an
exercise in frustration. Most branches of government

are horribly underfunded, and, as a result, they often fail

to function correctly. This naturally leads to feelings of
frustration, anxiety and even despair, and spirits of these
sorts feast on the energies thus generated. These spirits
also tend to feast uninterrupted, since werewolves (and, for
that matter, other supernatural beings) find it difficult to
operate in such areas without being detected.

H istorical Issues

History may not be terribly important to young

people in the here and now, but its very important to
spirits and the towns they inhabit. A towns history lends
itself heavily to its sense of identity, and this, in turn,
influences both the nature and the abundance of the
spirits roaming about in the towns territories. This history
is generally of two different sorts: the first is history in the
traditional sense, which contributes to an areas cultural
legacy. This is the sort of information that everybody
knows, and it helps to establish the general mindset of
the towns citizenry. The second sort of history is focused
more on current events, or on smaller issues that affect
only a portion of the towns area. Both sorts of history are
important, and can affect a territory in unexpected ways.
Consider the following:
World Events: If a neighborhood or town played
a significant role in the unfolding of events that went on
to shape the world, the neighborhood or towns citizenry
(and its spirits) will react accordingly. The neighborhood
of Watts in Los Angeles, for example, might not be noteworthy on its own, but its role in the civil rights movement of the 1960s is monumental. Similarly, the town of
Los Alamos gave rise to the worlds first nuclear weapons,
while the city of Versailles is known mainly because the
treaty ending World War I was signed in its palace in
1919. Many cities, towns and neighborhoods have similar
stories, and recognizing these stories does much to make
these areas come alive.
Origins: While global events do much to shape
the history of a town, the story of its birth is equally
important. Why was the town formed to begin with? Who
founded it, and why? How has it grown and changed in
the time since? Has its growth steadily increased, or has it
progressed in fits and spurts over time? Is it healthy now,
or creeping toward obsolescence? How do the answers to
these questions affect the people living in the town, and
what does that say about the spirit world they influence?
Recent History: Not all of a towns history is
earth-shattering. Indeed, the most significant events in
any given territory might have nothing more than local
significance. Perhaps the local auto shop closed down, or
perhaps an outsider recently moved in. What has happened to the town in recent memory, and why is it important? These are questions that directly affect the pack, and
answering them is the first step when they set to managing
their newfound territory.

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Put t ing I t All Toge ther :

Sample Urban Territories

While simple and straightforward territories located

in purely industrial, commercial or residential territories
do indeed exist, the most valuable werewolf territories
combine elements from several different zones to create
a cohesive whole. Each territory naturally has its own
history associated with it, and once the pack figures out
how the geography and history of the territory interact,
the packmembers can begin to manage it effectively. Territories of this sort are easily scalable, since they can be
found in small towns and large metropolises alike, and the
diversity these territories offer makes them both familiar
and unpredictable. Examples of such integrated territories
are described below.

The Bustling Cit y Block

At the heart of the modern city is the city block,
which is home to the citys major centers of commerce and
the various infrastructure needed to support them. In the
heart of the city, these blocks host towering skyscrapers,
staggering feats of engineering that allow thousands of
people to work together in close proximity. They are not
alone, however; everything from restaurants to department stores to parking garages lends them some measure
of support, and allows them to function in an urban environment no matter the hour. As one progresses outward
from the city center, the blocks become slightly more
modest, with towering monoliths giving way to mini-marts
and gas stations and apartment complexes. The blocks
basic function does not change, however; no matter the
scale, the city block is meant to give humans a place to
live and work, and to provide the amenities they need to
do so in relative comfort.
The spiritscape of a city block is, as one might imagine, a cornucopia of sensations. There is laughter, despair,
joy, hope and everything in between. Nearly anything can
happen in such an area, and this is part of what makes
these sorts of territories attractive. But theres something
else you find in a city that you dont tend to find elsewhere:
spirits of community. These are emergent spirits, typically Jagglings, formed from the emotional resonance of
large numbers of people. Werewolves often find that such
community-spirits are indicators of the general health of
a community as a whole; if the spirit is happy, the community is healthy. If the spirit is angry or sad, something
is adversely affecting the community. The pack thus
finds that managing the community is just as important
as managing the spirit world that community creates
unfortunately, the packmembers also find that the one
is nowhere nearly as simple as the other.

The Inner-Cit y Neighborhood

At one point, years or decades past, this neighborhood was a residential area for workers in the citys industrial center. As the affluent began to move to suburbia,

104

however, the neighborhood began to decline. The industries that kept it alive in the past are now abandoned, sacrificed on the altars of expansion and progress. The people
who remain have tried to adapt as best they can, but its
hard going for most; their skills are no longer needed, and
they have no reliable way to learn new ones. The result is
despair and misery, and this is where the horror starts.
The spiritscape of the inner city is bleak and hopeless, characterized as it is by the many broken dreams of
its residents. It is not without hope, however at least
not yet. The people here still have dreams of a better
future, of escaping from their current circumstances, but,
in the meantime, all they have to drive them is bitterness
and anger. Reclaiming such a territory might be possible,
but doing so would be an enormous undertaking. It is
certainly beyond the capabilities of any single pack, but
if the pack has enough influence in the human world to
generate interest in the neighborhood, all sorts of things
become possible.

The Old Industrial Town

Human beings are industrious beasts, of that there is
no doubt. Sadly, however, their penchant for progress has
unintended side effects, and nowhere is this more evident
than in the old industrial town. Such towns are fairly
common, and are defined by their devotion to producing one particular type of natural resource an ore of
some sort, or coal, or timber or something similar. At one
time, the town was probably bustling with activity, but
as technology advanced, the town became less and less
important. Today, it is but a shadow of its former self, and
the people who live there are struggling just to make ends
meet.
The Hisil of such a town is bleak and foreboding,
but is not the dark pit of despair that the inner city is.
Paradoxically, however, the old industrial town is also an
even poorer candidate for rejuvenation. The inner city
can be saved by philanthropy and hard work, but once
an industry is no longer needed, a town is hardpressed to
reinvent itself through force of will alone. Werewolves of
such a town, and the people they shepherd, will ultimately
find themselves forced to move on if they hope to find any
measure of prosperity.

Gaining Turf

Gaining control of a territory in a residential area is

no small matter. Inner cities are often controlled by gangs
and criminals, and most city blocks have icons of one
sort or another calling the shots. These people often have
history on their side, and attained their current status
via connections of some sort or twists of fate that are not
easily undone. Whether or not these people are wealthy is,
oddly, a side issue. What is important is the fact that they
have power, and will exert it to maintain their position.
They might also have the law on their side, and that will
make things even more difficult. If the troupe hopes to

105

gain control of an urban territory, the characters will have

to figure out how to take these sorts of individuals down,
or at least find some way to co-opt their influence for their
own ends. There are a number of ways the troupe might
accomplish this.

Vacant Lot s

If the characters are lucky, theyll seek to claim a territory and find no one standing in the way of their goals.
This sort of situation might arise for several reasons: the
area might be sparsely populated, meaning theres no one
trying to call the shots, or it might simply be disorganized.
The characters might even be victims of particularly good
timing, arriving on the scene when other, more influential
individuals have departed or been removed. No matter
the reasons, the territory is theirs for the taking. At first
glance, gaining a territory in such a fashion might seem
a bit dull, an, for Storytelling purposes, it usually is. But
if the troupe is more interested in maintaining a territory
than in establishing one, keeping things simple might save
the group an awful lot of time and hassle.
Naturally, the spiritscape of a territory claimed so
easily will be similarly uninspiring; if the territory had
no previous tenant, the land might very well have no
permanent residents to speak of, and even if the land does,
they probably arent terribly influential. Naturally, this can
change; the characters arrival might trigger the emergence of other, previously dormant spirits, and even a dull

paradise can prove to be exciting once something arrives

to threaten it.

Takeover

If the troupe isnt lucky enough to inherit their

territory outright, they might very well have to take it
by force. This can happen in many different ways, and
neednt involve a pack versus pack conflict; indeed, the
battle for control need not be supernatural in nature. The
conflict can manifest as a gang war, a labor strike, a police
action reclaiming a lawless territory or even open warfare.
Regardless of the methodology employed, the main pitfall
to hostile takeovers is the amount of fallout they generate;
people in charge tend to have friends, and those friends
tend to react badly to news that their allies have been
eliminated. While this is unfortunate for the characters,
it neednt be a bad thing from a Storytelling perspective;
indeed, the process of laying claim to a territory might
amount to a story in its own right as the players learn
about their enemies and how best to neutralize them.
Naturally, the hostile takeover of a territory has dramatic repercussions for the spirit world. Spirits are usually
accustomed to doing things in a certain fashion, and once
a new werewolf pack shows up, they often have to change
the way they do things. In the short term, whether the
changes are good or bad doesnt really matter, since theyre
stressful either way. The pack will thus encounter a great
deal of resistance from the locals until they manage to
establish their dominance in the territory, and theyll have

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Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

to deal with subversive elements within the Hisil for a long
time to come.

Born

to

Power

Rather than take down the dominant group in the

neighborhood, the characters might start out as members
of said group. If an inner city is ruled by a particular street
gang, for instance, the troupes member might have joined
that gang prior to their first change. Alternately, the
characters might be steel workers in an old steel town, or
movers and shakers dominating the citys policy decisions.
No matter their background, the newly changed Uratha
prowl the streets on their own or, if few in number, form
the nucleus of a much larger group. They thus receive
their territory by dint of history or association, and neednt
invest much effort in securing their claim.
In many ways this scenario represents the easiest
transition for the spirit world. Rather than being forced
to adapt to the whys and wherefores of a new group of
werewolves they are instead being asked to submit to those
theyve known for quite some time, people who might
even be the successors to the current pack managing the
territory. While the spirits never particularly enjoy submitting to a werewolf pack, going about it in this fashion at
least makes it as painless as possible.

Cool Digs

One of the nice things about urban territories is the

fact that they have lots of perks working for them. This
is particularly true with urban neighborhoods; they are
filled with people and spirits aplenty, and that means they
tend to have lots of loci. Buildings make for excellent
defensive positions in a fight, and large numbers of people
make it easy to conceal ones nocturnal meanderings
provided theyre properly managed. On the downside, the
high number of loci makes urban territories attractive to
hostile spirits, and the crowds of people can make keeping
a low profile difficult. Still, the advantages generally tend
to outweigh the disadvantages, and thats why Uratha are
urban predators more often than not.

Spirit ual Resonance

Its no secret that human beings generate a huge

amount of spiritual energy. While its true that they lack
the resilience of mountains or the raw power of a thunderstorm, its also true that these failings are offset by the
sheer number of the buggers in existence. There are a lot
of humans in the world, and they congregate in groups.
That means they generate loci very quickly, and those said
loci can get to be awfully powerful.
Werewolves investigating a newly acquired territory
may find loci in any number of places, but their most
common haunts are gathering spots coffee houses,
city parks, war memorials and the like. In economically
depressed neighborhoods, loci tend to be loci of hope or

106

despair depending on the circumstances, while more welloff neighborhoods generate loci of dynamism and comfort
instead. In most cases, the loci are fairly public and easy
to find.
The downside to urban loci is that they dont tend to
be very strong they form quickly but usually lack the
intensity of emotion needed to make a really powerful
locus. Most are only Rank 1 in strength, while the more
powerful ones are typically limited to Rank 3. There are
exceptions, however. A pack might investigate an abandoned apartment building and discover that it was used as
a serial killers haunt, which might result in a very powerful locus. The same is true of memorials; people who visit
them do so with strong emotions in their hearts, and can
thus contribute to the formation of extremely powerful
loci.

Gathering Places
The most common loci in urban areas form in communal gathering places, such as coffee shops, nightclubs
and stadiums. These loci are shaped more by the general
atmosphere of such places rather than any specific events
that take place therein; as a result, loci in gathering places
tend to be a bit weaker than loci associated with more
specific acts and feelings.
The Corner Coffee Shop
Rating:
Resonance: Contentment
Since city goers cant live without their coffee, coffee
shops are an ubiquitous sight once you hit the city center.
These places radiate feelings of contentment even in the
physical world, as busy commuters stop buy for a cup of joe
and a few minutes rest. The specific locus in such a place
is the front doorway, as it is here that people first catch
the whiff of coffee and begin to let their worries fade away
(at least for a little while). Spirits of contentment dominate this particular place, feeding on the resonance of the
people therein and perhaps urging them to seek greater
and greater comforts.

The Workplace
No matter the position, human jobs all have one
thing in common: they generate stress. There are always deadlines to meet, annoying people to manage and
uncertain futures to contemplate; these things combine
to create feelings of anxiety and frustration in workers
around the world. Spirits naturally love to feast on such
powerful emotions, and, with some urging, the workplace
can create the spark needed to form a locus.
The Conference Room Table
Rating:
Resonance: Anxiety
Projects are designed, deals are made, careers are
destroyed. This happens every day, and the one to bear
witness to it all is the conference room table. This is
where people come together to pitch ideas, to argue

107
about accountability, to save face and to congratulate one
another on a job well done. For good or ill, this table sees
more stress than any other part of the building, and the
Hisil here is more Darwinian than anywhere else on the
planet. The table is also nigh impossible to manage except
in the rarest of cases, which makes the table a tasty treat
that werewolves find maddeningly out of reach.

M emorials
Humans are capable of great acts, both positive and
negative. A memorial might signify many things: the
losses endured in a conflict, the triumph associated with
a great achievement or perhaps simply an important date.
No matter the significance, memorials tend to be powerful
loci, as they are visited by generations upon generations
of people who often display powerful emotions when they
stop by.
The War Memorial
Rating:
Resonance: Grief
Wars are a ghastly business, and the price for waging
them is measured in human lives. The grief and suffering that accompanies such loss is enormous, and in an
effort to manage it and, also, to remember those lost
the survivors create memorials. These are often centers
of intense emotional energy, associated with grief, loss
and pain. Oddly, however, memorials that become loci
arent necessarily reservoirs of negative energy. Some are
steeped in feelings of catharsis, pride and healing. Such
resonance, while certainly tainted by loss, is ultimately
positive in nature, and is attractive to spirits of duty, pride
and patriotism.

H uman D omest icat ion

It is said that one should never underestimate the

stupidity of humans in groups, and, for the most part,
that statement is true. While they are certainly capable
of critical thinking, humans are generally loath to engage
in the activity; it forces them to recognize some ugly
truths about themselves and the world around them, and
thats something they would very much rather not do.
And so they play follow-the-leader, avoiding responsibility
whenever possible and doing whatever they have to do to
make sure theyre left alone. Not all humans are like this,
of course, but the failing is strong enough in most of them
that controlling an urban territory is a fairly simple matter.
The key, of course, lies in identifying the people in
charge and learning how best to manipulate them to your
own ends. This need not be a subversive venture. It can
amount to making friends with the local community leaders and offering them suggestions for improving the neighborhood (suggestions that will, coincidentally, also help to
improve the spirit world). Where leaders go the rest will
follow, and in this way the pack can shape the neighborhoods resonance without manipulating it directly.

Apart from a communitys leaders, the pack must also

identify the specific needs of the people under its charge.
In a ghetto, for instance, the people will be skittish and
afraid, so accustomed are they to the predatory influences
of gangs and criminals. The pack cannot ignore such people, as doing so will only encourage the fearful resonance
they generate to accumulate. Rather, the pack must draw
the people out and make them part of their surroundings
once again, and, in so doing, improve the overall health of
their territory. Naturally, the truth of this lesson extends
far beyond the ghetto and applies equally well to
suburbanites who are accustomed to keeping their secrets
or to rat race commuters who think theyre just another
statistic.

The Urban Wilderness

Urban territories offer predators and prey two types of

cover, and most of each dont take full advantage of either.
The first is obvious: hard concrete. Buildings, sewers, roads
and the vehicles they carry all offer attack and escape
options to those who recognize the potential. This is
particularly true in underdeveloped neighborhoods, where
buildings may be abandoned and hence serve as ideal hiding places (for both predator and prey).
The second type of cover is perhaps less obvious, but
no less useful: human beings. Uratha arent the only supernaturals who have a vested interest in remaining hidden
from the masses after all; even the most avaricious Azlu
recognizes the need for secrecy, and will do everything in
her power to avoid detection by the populace at large. A
savvy Uratha pack can use this to its advantage, avoiding
surprise attacks and staging counterattacks that use the
packmembers foes paranoia to best effect. The packmembers can escape into a crowd, trigger retaliatory strikes
from the locals (this is especially true in gang-infested
neighborhoods), bring the authorities to bear in volatile
situations and so on and so forth. Most such usage has to
be subtle to be effective, but that doesnt change the fact
that it often is just that effective.

Urban Totems

One of the more intriguing things about urban territories is the strange and, perhaps, unexpected diversity of
totems they provide. A nascent werewolf pack, fresh from
the rites of passage and growing accustomed to the bizarre
worldview imparted upon the packmembers by their animistic natures, might be forgiven for thinking their totems
should take the form of wolves or other sorts of animals.
In the heart of the big city, however, this is anything but
true. Consider the merits of Lights-Blurring-Past, a totem
of speed and cunning, or of Electric Thunder Radio, a
totem of culture and sophistication (or the lack thereof).
And what of animals not to be found in the wild, from the
ragged toughness of a stray cat to the devotion of a dogspirit? The possibilities urban totems provide are endless,
and emblematic of the face of animism in the modern age.

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Urban totems do have their downsides, however. To
begin with, theyre generally accustomed to one specific
sort of environment, and they can be picky about where
they and their pack operate. The children of Lights-Blurring-Past, for instance, had better spend a lot of time on
the open road, and anyone who chooses to follow a stray
cat totem will feel very uncomfortable in polite society.
As with all relationships with totems, the pack has to pay
the price to gain a spirit ally. Packs can work around these
failings, of course, but theyre something to keep in mind
when initially investing in the totem.

Locals

The typical city block is populated by all manner

of colorful people, and most packs will find that knowing whos who and want they want makes managing a
territory a hell of a lot easier. Such folk might be perfectly
innocuous or decidedly unpleasant, but, either way, knowledge is power. Sample personae are given below; for other
potential contacts, see the World of Darkness Rulebook,
p. 203.

The Creepy Drif ter

Everybody knows him: hes the creepy drifter who
snarls at everyone and causes a fuss every time he shows
up. Maybe he has a criminal record, maybe he doesnt
(most people think he does even if he doesnt), but, either
way, he doesnt get along with folks and generally just
wants to be left alone. Most people think thats just fine,
since they dont want to be around him anyway. What he
probably doesnt know, and what everyone else certainly
doesnt know, is that he doesnt fit in with the crowd for
a very good reason: hes a wolf-blood, and, therefore, the
teaming throngs of humanity just dont call to him as they
do to everyone else.
Asshole or not, the creepy drifter can make an
intriguing contact for a nascent werewolf pack provided, of course, that they can win his confidence. This is
no small challenge, of course, but if they manage it, hell
prove to be an able ally who can face down the supernatural with the best of them and still hold down a day job
(which is not to say that he will, but he can manage it a
lot more easily than most werewolves).
Abilities:
Firearms (dice pool 7) Ex-con or not, he knows
how to shoot.
Intimidation (dice pool 6) Hes serious when he
says he wants to be left alone.

The Drug D ealer

A common sight in inner-city neighborhoods, drug
dealers are the scourge of communities everywhere. They
ruin lives and destroy communities, and there is no question that the world would be better off without them. But
werewolves dont necessarily look at these people as targets. Some werewolves decide they might as well make use

108

of drug dealers. Drug dealers tend to be superb informants,

and they know more about the citys seedier goings-on
than most anyone. Drug dealers arent friendly, and their
services dont come cheap, but the information they can
offer often cant be found anywhere else.
Crummy as they may be, drug dealers can also serve a
greater good in their communities. The successful ones are
good at keeping the competition to a minimum, and that
means they bring order to their little chunk of territory.
No one fights, no one messes with the residents, no one
does business there without the dealers say so. He may
be a tyrant, but he looks out for his property, and thats
something to consider before one takes up arms to out him
from the neighborhood.
Abilities:
Subterfuge (dice pool 6) Honesty isnt the best
policy in this trade.
Streetwise (dice pool 7) Life on the streets is
rough, and a successful dealer knows the streets better
than most.

The Guardian

of the

People

Not every neighborhood has one, but those that do

consider themselves blessed. The guardian of the people
is a champion, someone who fights for the neighborhoods
interests against the government, greedy corporations or
even the freaky shit nobody talks about. This archetype
is typically a blue-collar worker who has decided hes had
enough. Hes taking a stand for his friends and family (and
perhaps co-workers as well), and he will fight for them
with every means at his disposal. The more peaceful examples of such figures lead protests, wage legal battles and
try to increase general public awareness of their peoples
plight through use of the media. More militant sorts might
blow up factories, sabotage government works and generate all the hate they can muster against the targets of their
ire.
When defending a neighborhood, werewolf packs will
find the guardian of the people an invaluable ally his
loyalty to his community is absolute, and hell throw all
his support behind the pack if he understands its goals
and how the packmembers relate to the neighborhood.
His support only goes so far, however; if the pack seems to
be more of a bad influence on the area, he may well mark
these strange, potentially violent people as undesirables.
This is all the more likely if he finds out what their real
story is.
Abilities:
Persuasion (dice pool 6) Sound arguments are the
guardians bread and butter.
Expression (dice pool 7) The guardian of the
people is all about rallying support for his cause.

The S tree t Kid

When faced with chronic abuse or neglect, children
often run away from home in search of better lives on the

109
road. They typically meet tragic ends, but if theyre lucky,
they might be rescued by well-meaning folk and put into
foster care or group homes. While this does little to address the cause of the runaways problems, it does open up
some interesting roleplaying opportunities. Of course, not
all street kids are runaways; some might have an interest
in local street life (such as an older brother in a gang), or
they may spend as little time as possible at home to avoid
an abusive relative.
If the pack manages to become friendly with an
urchin of some sort, the packmembers may find she can
be an invaluable source of information. People generally dont pay much attention to kids, so the sneaky little
bastards make excellent spies. Naturally, this relationship
can only go so far the kid will be useless whenever a
supernatural being shows up on the scene, even if she is a
wolf-blood, and she wont be at the characters beck and
call whenever they need an extra set of eyes and ears.
Abilities:
Stealth (dice pool 5) People just dont pay much
attention to kids, and theyre small and sneaky to boot.
Streetwise (dice pool 5) Kids know how to get by
on the streets. Maybe if you take them seriously, theyll
decide to share what they know.

Influences: Community
Numina: Chorus, Communion with the Land, Discorporation, Materialize, Material Vision, Possession, Reaching,
Technological Mastery, Wilds Sense
Communion with the Land: As the five-dot Knowledge
Gift.
Technological Mastery: Urban avatars can use all of the
Gifts on the Technology Gift list.

Urban Avatar

Visibilit y

The urban avatar is the spirit of the community given

form, an amalgamation of the communitys hopes and
dreams and fears, coupled with all the little niceties and
worries that go along with everyday life. The urban avatar
is people and cars and buildings and pet goldfish and anything and everything in-between. The avatar of a place
can be hidden or overt, but interacting with it is always
difficult; it is, after all, the personification of an abstract
concept, and mortals (even werewolves) have difficulty
grasping such things (let alone interacting with them).
If the pack can successfully locate and engage the
avatar of the packs territory, however, the packmembers
jobs can become easier if theyre genuinely working to
make the place better in a way that matches the avatars
goals. While the avatar is not an open book, eager to
answer the packs questions, the avatar is, nonetheless,
interested in keeping the community the avatar represents healthy and whole. If the packmembers can prove
to it that this is what they seek, it will help them in any
way it can (though such help may be limited or somewhat
cryptic).
Rank: 3
Attributes: Power 7; Finesse 5; Resistance 9
Willpower: 1 6
Essence: 20 (max 20)
Initiative: 1 4
Defense: 7
Speed: 2 2 (species factor 1 0)
Size: 5
Corpus: 1 4

E xpansion

Managing an urban territory is no simple task, but a

sufficiently diligent pack will find that doing so is certainly
possible. Once the pack does, itll be looking to expand its
influence, and, given the nature of urban territories, this is
a fairly simple task. In the best-case scenario, the characters can simply expand their territory block by block,
continuing until they run out of city, spread themselves
too thin or run into obstacles they dont care to address.
Even in less-than-ideal circumstances, the modular nature
of cities makes expansion a relatively easy task (at the very
least, the characters will know what they are dealing with
and have a general idea of where it resides). There are
some considerations to bear in mind when contemplating
new growth, however.
As a packs influence in an urban setting grows, the
packs visibility grows along with its influence. Apart from
increasing the risk of accidental exposure to ordinary
humans, this also means the packs enemies will find it
easier to harass the pack, and that the packs allies and
the spirits they govern will place more and more demands
on the packs time. While this puts an upper limit on the
amount of territory the characters can ultimately control,
they can lower their profile in any number of ways.

D elegat ion
As the characters grow in power, they can assign
the maintenance of parts of their territory to subordinate packs or, in some cases, even ordinary humans
(who might or might not understand the characters true
nature). Storm Lords and Blood Talons tend to favor this
approach, as it creates a clear dominance hierarchy and
chain of command. It also allows the pack to maintain
firm control of the whole of the territory, no matter how
large it may be. Unfortunately, this approach can also be
quite hands on, meaning the pack will be awfully busy
most of the time.

Indirect Influence
A favored tactic of the Iron Masters, rule by proxy is
an effective if less-than-glamorous way to rule a territory. Why fight for a territory when you can simply buy it
outright? Let the humans rule themselves, and save the
patrolling for threats that simply cannot be ignored. This
approach greatly reduces the territorial demands on a

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Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

Naturally, expansion via conquest carries with it
many of the same difficulties associated with claims via
conquest, as described above. The difference, however, lies
in the fact that the expanding pack has much more
experience dealing with the spirit world, and likely
knows more about the area than a pack of neophytes
likely would. This means the expanding pack will be
better prepared to clean up the mess the packmembers
make when they launch their attacks, since theyll be able
to soothe the ruffled feathers of spirits and humans alike.
Naturally, this doesnt make conquest in this fashion a
matter to be taken lightly; it simply makes it doable so
long as the pack acts responsibly.

Alliances

packs time and resources, but runs the risk of leaving the
packmembers more and more out of touch as time goes by.

The Subtle A pproach

While some werewolves favor rule by proxy, others completely abandon the idea of direct control over a
territory. This is a common tactic among the Hunters in
Darkness and Bone Shadows, who are often more interested in knowing whats going on in a territory than they
are in calling the shots themselves. This is also an excellent way to survive in a territory nominally ruled by other
supernaturals; vampires, for example, have no quarrel with
werewolves who mind their own business and dont rock
the boat.

Conquest

Sometimes, crushing your neighbors is just the way to

go. Newly formed packs generally have to start small when
it comes to territories, but nothing says they have to stay
that way. This is particularly true when their territories
border those of enemies of some sort; once the pack has
enough experience under its belt, the notion of crushing
the neighboring Pure pack and salvaging its territory holds
a lot of appeal, and the same logic holds true when the a
vampire coterie gets a little too big for its britches or when
a cabal of mages starts to monkey with things better left
undisturbed.

110

If the pack lives in an area with a

relatively high concentration of werewolves
(a large town or small city, for instance) the
packmembers might find it worthwhile to form
alliances with like-minded packs. This is much
more easily said than done, of course; werewolves
are territorial, temperamental beasts, and
they dont like sharing their territory with
anyone outside of their pack. The key here is
to ensure that each pack has its own area of
influence, and its own territory to call home. If
the packs limit their association to sharing information and collaborating on major projects, they also limit
the potential for inter-pack friction. Particularly clever
packs might even combine multi-pack alliances with some
of the large-scale management suggestions given above; if
a pack of Hunters in Darkness contents itself with gathering information about the goings-on in a city while a pack
of Bone Shadows concerns itself with maintaining the
citys Hisil, the two might control a much larger territory
than either could manage on its own.

Fission

One of the characteristics of any successful werewolf

pack is growth. As packmembers grow older and establish
families of their own, they will inevitably give birth to
children or grandchildren who wind up following in their
elders footsteps. These progeny can join the pack up to
a point, but before long the packs numbers will grow too
large to be sustained by a single territory; members will
start getting on one anothers nerves due to a combination of boredom and sheer proximity; the easiest way to
cope with the problem is to allow the younger members
of the pack to expand into a territory of their own. If the
packs elders have any foresight, theyll prepare territories
with this eventuality in mind, and thus make the transition painless for everyone involved. In the absence of such
foresight, however, things might get messy. Conflict
might erupt between members of the pack, members might
be forced out and the process of claiming a territory might

111
begin anew. This is, naturally, the scenario most Uratha
would rather avoid, but it happens much more often than
theyd care to admit (indeed, the Brethren War was a
result of exactly this sort of situation).

H uman Concerns

Like it or not, humans are the de facto rulers of planet

Earth, and this is especially true in human cities. State
and local governments call the shots on just about every
scale imaginable, and the city decides who owns what and
how they go about doing it. This means an Uratha packs
might well have to jockey with city officials in order to
control a territory, and will almost certainly have to do
the same if they ever hope to expand their influence. This
interaction can take many forms: the pack might have to
deal with urban planners or zoning boards when building/
acquiring a new building, or the pack might have to deal
with the police when expanding the turf of an urban gang
or the pack might have to deal with wealthy industrialists
who want to build right on top of a city park (one that
just happens to contain a powerful locus). Try as the pack
might, the human factor simply cannot be ignored; the
characters will have to adapt, and, if they refuse to do so,
theyll wind up losing ground instead of gaining it.

Threat s

The urban jungle has many threats lying in wait for

the Uratha, and most of these threats are maddeningly
subtle. The least of them are ordinary humans, who are
usually harmless in a physical sense but can prove to be
nuisances in many other ways. Supernatural threats are
even more alarming, since the ones that are well adapted
to surviving in cities know full well how to escape the
notice of vigilant werewolves. This makes detecting these
supernatural threats difficult, and destroying them next
to impossible. But, of course, the greatest threat facing an
urban werewolf is simple exposure its hardest to keep
the herd ignorant when hunting where the herd is thickest. Even still, a werewolf in full Gauru form invokes the
Lunacy in city dwellers with the best of them, and even
hardened urban denizens will tell stories about the sights
they half-remember or recall incorrectly.

The Police

Faceless and numerous, the police are ubiquitous in

most urban areas, shying away only from the worse parts
of the inner cities. Police officers are paragons of order if
not virtue, and in the World of Darkness, they tend to
be on the lookout for strange stuff. This is not to say they
have any knowledge of the supernatural, mind; most are
as ignorant of it as the average Joe on the street. But they
are more likely to listen to stories about strange or unusual
occurrences than are officers in the real world, and that
means their chance to interact with the pack in some
fashion is not trivial.

Police officers in the World of Darkness can serve

either as supporting cast or outright threat, and Storytellers are encouraged to explore both possibilities. Making
police corrupt or otherwise tarnished in some fashion
might be tempting, but that need not be the case they
might also be well-meaning folk who just want to do their
jobs, and who arent about to tolerate any tomfoolery in
the process. Such individuals can be just as threatening as
the crooked sorts, but they can also be invaluable allies if
approached correctly.
Abilities (Beat Cop)
Investigation (dice pool 4) Even beat cops have
some investigative abilities, and theyre trained to spot the
out of place or the unusual.
Firearms (dice pool 5) All police officers, at least
in the United States, are armed with a firearm of some
sort. This pool can be replaced with Melee as appropriate
in other countries.
Abilities (Detective)
Investigation (dice pool 7) Investigation is a
detectives stock in trade.
Firearms (dice pool 6) The average detective has
a bit more experience under his belt than the average beat
cop, and hence might easily be a better shot.

Beshilu Guerilla

While the Beshilu have no connection to human

terrorists of any stripe, the Beshilu are nonetheless ideally
suited to the role of wreaking havoc in any urban area.
This ratling is no exception to the rule the thickened
Gauntlet so typical of urban areas fuels his mad desire to
gnaw, and the roots of his umbrage are so primal that even
the Uratha find them incomprehensible. He is unusually
savvy for a Beshilu mob; he will never show himself directly, instead choosing to use his swarm form to infiltrate
buildings and gnaw through the Gauntlet from within
the heart of the city. This leaves the troupe in the role of
firefighters, constantly playing catch-up as they patch the
rats holes and wonder why hes evading them so easily.
The key to making the Beshilu guerilla work lies
in portraying him as both an intelligent and immensely
alien being. He is as smart as any human, and yet he is
driven by urges even he can barely begin to understand;
he cannot be bargained with, he cannot be reasoned
with and he will not stop ever. His only driving goals
are survival and the dissolution of the Gauntlet between
worlds, and yet he is not a mere machine he is capable
of forethought, of laying traps for his foes and of studying the behaviors of his enemies. This is what makes him
frightening. While the Uratha may find common ground
with humans and even with spirits, this is not so with the
Beshilu. He is simply a force of nature, one whose intelligence and foresight make him the deadliest of foes.

The City Block

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

Abilities
Occult (dice pool 6) Know thy enemy seems to
be this rats mantra, and it makes him damnably clever
when it comes to anticipating his foes movements and
objectives.
Athletics (dice pool 7) Beshilu are adroit at going
places where living things arent really meant to go, to say
nothing of evading pursuit.
Stealth (dice pool 9) The sneaky little bastard
can go anywhere and everywhere, and it doesnt seem like
anyone can track his movements until after the fact.

Vampire Bikers

Werewolves generally have no real problem sharing

their territory with vampires, but this mob will surely test
the packs patience. Why theyre slumming in the Urathas
turf is a mystery, but slumming is exactly what theyre doing; theyre feeding with abandon and ignoring the counsel of their elders, and they dont seem to care a whit about
borders or any semblance of decorum. They just want to
wreak havoc, and the consequences be damned.
A threat of this sort works nicely for characters who
are just establishing their territory, and are thus unfamiliar
with all of the advantages it might have to offer. This will
turn the characters from predators into prey, making this
one of their earliest tests while in control of their turf.
The annoying thing about this group is the fact that they
arent just a bunch of dumb punks they have some real
power at their disposal, and they have numbers on their
side as well. The pack had best be careful, lest its members
find themselves schooled like a bunch of rank amateurs.
Abilities
Brawl (dice pool 8) The gang is well skilled in the
art of busting heads, and is eager to share the love with
anyone who gets in their way.
Intimidation (dice pool 7) They may not be the
sharpest knives in the drawer, but the bikers know how
the scare the bejesus out of folks even without tapping
into their vampiric natures.

The Urbane Spider Woman

Most Azlu content themselves with being predators

of flesh and spirit, feasting on the humans, spirits and (in
rare cases) Uratha who congregate around the citys more
powerful loci. Not so this spider; she is smart enough to
understand the ins and outs of human society and the
constraints said society places upon the activities of the
citys supernaturals. She has also learned to weave her
webs in innovative fashion, strengthening the walls of the
Gauntlet in ways that are all but undetectable. Perhaps
she is an interior decorator, designing homes with her own
special brand of feng shui. Or perhaps she is a tattoo artist,
weaving her webs into the very artwork she creates. The
possibilities are endless, but there is one constant they
are all subtle. She knows that discovery means death, and
so she has become very, very good at hiding her tracks.

112

Madame X
Madame X is the moniker used by the owner
of Ink, a seedy tattoo parlor located in one of
the worst parts of town. Madame X appears to
be a woman of indeterminate origin; indeed, her
customers have found that nearly every aspect of
her appearance is mutable and subject to change.
Sometimes she appears to be a dark-skinned
African woman, while at others she appears to be
Vietnamese, Caucasian or Latino. No one knows
why or how she changes her appearance so drastically on such a regular basis, but her penchant
for doing so has turned her into a minor celebrity
in many of the neighborhood haunts. Complicating matters is the fact that nobody ever seems
to see her outside of her tattoo parlor; she must
have a life outside, of course, but where and how
she spends her time remains a mystery.
Unbeknownst to the locals, the original
Madame X was devoured a long time ago. The
creature in her skin is an Azlu of great skill and
artistry. Her tattoos are a means of binding her
Gauntlet Webs to living, moving beings, and
they allow her to strengthen the Gauntlet while
minimizing her risk of exposure. Her tattoo
business allows her to meet all sorts of new and
interesting people, and she uses the information
gleaned from such encounters to identify tasty
new potential victims.
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 4, Resolve 4
Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 3 ,
Stamina 2
Social Attributes: Presence 2, Manipulation 4,
Composure 4
Mental Skills: Crafts (Tattoo Artist) 4, Medicine 2,
Occult 2
Physical Skills: Athletics 2, Stealth 4, Survival 3
Social Skills: Animal Ken (Spiders) 1 , Expression 3 , Intimidation 2, Persuasion 3 , Subterfuge
(Misdirection) 4
Merits: Danger Sense, Resources 2, Striking
Looks 4
Willpower: 4
Morality: 4
Essence: 4
Virtue: Prudence
Vice: Pride
Health: 7
Initiative: 7
Defense: 3
Speed: 1 0
Numina: Chorus, Discorporation, Gauntlet
Webs, Skin Stealing, Speak With Beasts, Wall
Climb
Gauntlet Webs: Madame X has discovered a
particularly insidious use for this Numen: she

113
binds the webs directly into the tattoos she
crafts. This makes the webs difficult to destroy,
as they are both mobile and bound to the life of
the person wearing them; destroying the webs
requires destroying the person who wears the
tattoo. However, webs of this sort are not as
powerful as typical Azlu webs; the strength of
their effect on the Gauntlet is measured both by
the complexity of the tattoo and by the number
of tattooed individuals in the vicinity. Typically, the difficulty to step or peak through the
Gauntlet in a 1 0-yard area increases by one for
every three tattoos in the vicinity. If the tattoos
are particularly complex, fewer may be needed
to have the same effect.
Skin Stealing: As the four-dot Mother Luna
Gift.
Speak With Beasts: As the two-dot Nature
Gift. Note that this Numen only works with
spiders.

The Well-Connected Slumlord

The urban slumlord is a disagreeable individual
who enjoys making peoples lives miserable. Any nascent
werewolf pack that discovers one in its territory will want
to dispatch him on general principle, but this one has a
trick up his sleeve: hes got connections. He knows a few
people in City Hall (which is why hes managed to evade

prosecution for his underhanded deeds to begin with), and

they would ask some uncomfortable questions if he suddenly up and disappeared. The characters will either have
to work around him or find some way to deal with him
without tipping their hand.
The slumlord fills two main roles as an antagonist:
first, he is a reminder that power isnt everything. Theres
no question that the characters could kill the bastard if
they wanted to, but that is just as assuredly not the way
to resolve the problem he represents. Neutralizing him
will be a long and difficult process, and it will remind the
characters that subtlety has its merits. More importantly,
however, the slumlord reinforces the fact that mortals
arent to be taken lightly. Their lack of supernatural
powers might make them seem like harmless obstacles,
but there are other sorts of power one might possess that
are just as dangerous as any Gift. Characters need to act
accordingly.
Abilities:
Subterfuge (dice pool 8) The slumlord is naturally
a crafty liar. Hes also spent a great deal of time covering
his tracks at City Hall.
Allies () The slumlord has dirt on many key
individuals in City Hall, and they make annoying things
such as building codes and lawsuits disappear. His Allies
are not altogether thrilled about the prospect of doing so,
naturally, but theres little they can do until the situation
changes somehow.

The City Block

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

Suburbia
The houses here are identical. Even longtime residents can get lost, especially at night, when confronted
with row after row of brown-and-white two-stories with
neatly manicured and specially treated laws. Drive on a
main road for a few miles and you travel through several
towns, but pass the same restaurants in the same sequence. The people who live here dont know each other,
but seeing the same cars and the same faces in the same
routines every day creates an eerie, and somewhat comforting, familiarity. This is life in the suburbs of the World
of Darkness.

Overview

The suburbs are the communities between the cities

and the country, infested with strip malls, chain restaurants and sub-developments named after trees. Living in
the suburbs usually means a commute to work, and is most
popular with people who dont want to deal with what
they perceive as the inconvenience and danger of city life
but still want some sense of civilization. The crime rates
are lower in the suburbs, and tend more toward vandalism, domestic violence and the occasional burglary than
the muggings and armed robberies of the city. Still, people
lock their doors and install expensive security systems.
They want to feel safe, but cannot shake the feeling that
they are in danger.
At first glance, the suburbs might seem too light a
setting for Werewolf: The Forsaken. Digging deeper into
the milieu of the suburbs and adding the subtle shading
that makes the World of Darkness what it is, however,
shows suburbia to have great potential as a werewolf territory. Consider the following:
Ambiance of the suburbs: Suburbia has a labyrinthine quality to it. Becoming lost in a neighborhood in
which all of the roads names include some variant on a
single word (Hoofbeat, Sycamore, Briar, etc.) is all
too easy. Chain restaurants spring up like mushrooms in
suburbs, and strip malls tend to include the same or similar shops. Therefore, residents know their way around, but
visitors might feel that they have passed the same coffee
shop or fast food establishment several times. What this
does to the spiritscape of the suburbs is discussed anon.
Suburbs also generate a false sense of community.
People live close together in identical houses, but they
dont necessarily know anything about one another. The
nature of suburban life often demands that people leave
their homes in the early morning and commute to the

114

city, then head straight home afterwards to have any

chance of family life. In the winter, its not uncommon to
leave ones house before sunrise, work indoors all day and
return home after dark. As such, people can live next door
to each other but never meet until something changes
radically enough to force this kind of interaction (a fire
or other natural disaster, a violent crime in the neighborhood, a new arrival that most of the neighborhood finds
objectionable, etc.).
Of course, not all suburbs harbor this kind of isolation. Some neighborhoods are very tight-knit, holding
block parties and organizing carpools and other community functions. These neighborhoods hold special dangers
for the Uratha, because the people in them know one
another, and so can recognize who belongs in the neighborhood and whos a stranger. This is discussed further
under Potential Threats on p. 124.
The rot beneath: In the World of Darkness, the
true horror of the suburbs is that everything is covered
with a layer of respectability and safety. The pack might
patrol several neighborhoods and never see anything
resembling a threat. Thats not because the threats dont
exist, however. The suburbs have their spirits and loci,
and therefore the suburbs have Ridden, Hosts and all
of the dangers that the cities or country do. But for the
same reasons that werewolves must be cautious (which
are discussed below), these beings hide themselves from
human sight. If an Azlu hollows out a human being to
use her body as a vehicle in the city, the Azlu can just
dump the shell when it becomes inconvenient. Doing
so in the suburbs isnt as easy, however, and so the Azlu
must develop methods of keeping the body around longer
or making sure it wont be missed. The suburbs force the
werewolves to be careful, persistent and, above all, subtle
hunters and not all packs are suited for it.
Lighter tone isnt bad: While its true that Werewolf is a Storytelling game of savage fury, that doesnt
mean that different tones arent appropriate. Fear and
humor are two basic and, in many ways, interconnected
emotions, and the most intense horror often comes from
the commonplace and even laughable. Thus, a chronicle
or story set in suburbia or a pack claiming a territory there
might be prone to poking fun at such a set. That doesnt
have to lessen the horror, however. It just creates a greater
sense of juxtaposition when the characters see what
monsters lurk in their idyllic neighborhoods (or, better yet,
become those monsters).

115
A number of modern films have achieved a good
balance between the straight-laced and somewhat bland
ambiance of the suburbs and the classic notions of horror.
The original Halloween was one of the first, but Ginger
Snaps (which also has the advantage of being a werewolf
movie) and Scream are also good picks.

Customizat ion

It might be tempting to say that all suburbs are the

same, but thats not really the case. Suburbs have their
points of distinction, but they tend to be subtle, and really
only obvious to people who live in a given suburb and can
make a good comparison. City dwellers who venture out
to the suburbs might be shocked by the eerie sameness of
the area, and experience dj vu as they drive through
several suburbs, but then suburbanites sometimes feel the
same sense of homogeneity when they visit large cites.
When designing a suburban territory for a Werewolf
chronicle, customizing the territory is important precisely
because suburbs can feel so similar. Consider the following
points:
Physical terrain: Imagine that the suburb had
never been built and that the surroundings are still in
their natural state. Would the land be meadows? Forests?
Swamps? What changes had to be made before human
beings could live in this suburb? Does the suburb consist of
large tracts of flat land (which might make stealth difficult
in places)? If the area used to be swampy, does the hot and
humid summer still bring an increase in stagnant water
and mosquitoes? The suburbs, thematically, are spaces
between city and country, and so they might also be
between natural terrain and development.
Consider, too, what this means for the Hisil. The
spirit world changes to reflect the physical world, but the
change is slow. A werewolf who steps sideways expecting
to find spiritual representations of the houses and restaurants of the suburbs is in for a surprise. Mass-produced
items dont tend to show up in the Shadow, and so its not
uncommon for a suburban development to be a flat, featureless plane. Of course, once the development has been
around for a few years, the people who live in the houses
might change the landscape or pour enough emotion into
their homes to awaken the spirits. This is a slow process,
however. Some suburban packs find that patrolling the
spirit world is as simple as finding any activity in the local
Shadow.
Local history: Has anything of real significance
happened in the suburb? Why was the place formed? Some
suburbs are quite recent, but some have been around for
more than a century and so have a wealth of dirty secrets
and interesting stories. Who are the historical figures of
the area? Usually, one can find a statue of the citys founder in the town square. The residents of the suburb might
all know the name of the founder and one particularly
intriguing legend about him, or they might never even

look up at the statue. Either possibility has implications for

the chronicle and for the pack claiming the territory.
What city? Suburbs draw a great deal of their identities from the cities they border. A suburb of New York
City has a very different feel than a suburb of Chicago.
Consider the size and industry of the parent city and to
what degree its culture has influenced the suburb.
Likewise, European suburbs are quite different from
American ones. European suburbs tend to be older and
thus have stronger spiritual presences. Since the specter
of franchise and globalization is a relatively new phenomenon, a werewolf pack in a community outside of Moscow
might find old, local spirits battling with new, young but
numerous entities.
Homogenization: How bland has the suburb
become? How many forests have been torn down to create
housing developments? Do any locally owned restaurants
remain, or have chains bought them out? What about groceries and other businesses? What features of the area stamp
this community with its own identity and culture, and how
close is the modern world to destroying that identity?
The decision on how homogenized the area has
become will probably influence what actions the pack
takes. A werewolf pack seeks to mark its territory, to put
a stamp of individuality on the area. This is difficult to do
if the place has no outstanding features. Therefore, while
a pack of Uratha might not particularly care whether fast
food chains open franchises in the packs territory, the
packmembers might work to prevent local businesses from
being sold or taken over. This isnt necessarily altruistic
a pack might visit the owner of such a business and
make it very clear that he is not to sell.

Metro Park R eport

Deer Population
John: Ive spent the week out in the woods
in the parks, and I drove around through the
neighborhoods that turned in the most deer
complaints last summer. You were right: there
are a lot fewer deer around now. I dont know
what changed. The weathers about the same,
we havent seen an increase in hunters or car
accidents and theres still enough food to sustain
the herds.
I didnt see as many sick or starving ones,
and not very many fawns, either. I hate to say
this, because its pretty ridiculous, but its almost
like we got wolves in the area. Im pretty sure
someone would have seen them, though, and I
didnt find any tracks when I was out looking.
Anyway, I really wish I had more time to
devote to this, but were stretched pretty thin
as it is. Ill keep my eyes out. Maybe somebody
from the university wants to run a study?

Suburbia

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

S tart ing Out

How does a werewolf pack claim a suburban territory?

A number of possibilities exist. Something to consider,
however, is why the pack wishes to claim this territory.
The pack might have a connection to the specific area, of
course it might hold a locus that resonates well with
the packs totem or the area might be significant to a given
tribe. But more general reasons for claiming a territory in
suburbia might also drive the pack.
Suburbia offers a comfortable mix of
the features of cities and rural areas.
Most suburbs have parks and
forests as well as residential and commercial
areas. This means that
werewolves can run
and hunt as wolves
while still taking part
in human society.
Therefore, suburban
domains tend to
popular with packs
that have some
reason to maintain
human identities, be
it wolf-blooded family
or just a simple desire
to do so.
Of course, the
suburbs also lack the
anonymity of the big
cities and the space of
rural areas. If a werewolf
wants to disappear, she
cant just lose herself in a
crowd. Plus, shes more likely
to be remembered because
the population density is lower. A
werewolf pack taking territory in the suburbs needs
to take this into consideration, as it means operating with
a lighter touch than city or country life requires.

H ome town Packs

Its not unthinkable that a pack might be composed

partially or entirely of werewolves who grew up in the
suburb, the city it borders or in other surrounding towns.
Such a pack faces learning all about its home turf from
a spiritual perspective, but because the packmembers
already know the physical geography they have a distinct
advantage. The desire for familiarity and safety is understandable, and so it makes sense that if enough werewolves
from the same area can find each other and form a pack,
they would want to claim territory in an area that they
know well. Once these locals learn about the Uratha of
the area, the locals know which suburbs are unclaimed

116

territory and can thus choose a hunting ground that

doesnt conflict with others turf. If the packmembers are
smart, of course, they will find out why a given area isnt
claimed, as the suburbs can hide danger in surprising
places.

Suburbanite

to

Werewolf

The First Change is a violent and traumatic event for

anyone, but suburbanites who undergo the Change have
their own specific issues to overcome. Similar to a city
dweller, a suburbanite who Changes is
probably in the middle of a populated area when his auspice
moon calls him. Similar
to a country resident,
the suburbanite can
flee to an unpopulated
area after the slaughter is over.
Unfortunately,
though, in the
suburbs one is never
far from human
intervention. A
new Uratha who
runs to the safety
of a wooded park
can expect to be
tracked by rangers (and probably
police) within an
hour or so. Police officers in suburbs arent
as overworked and
stretched thin as their
big city counterparts, and
so reports of a bear, mad dog,
wolf or whatever the Lunacy engenders in the witnesses bring out
a pa s sel of cops. The werewolf needs to find a safe
haven, but is probably harried and pursued throughout the
course of the night. Hopefully, another pack is around to
assist him, but if that isnt the case, he might find himself driven out of the area as spirits subtly nudge pursuers
toward him.
A werewolfs initial rampage can cause highly visible
and distinctive destruction. This is bad enough in a city,
but city dwellers are typically more jaded. Plus, the pace of
city life requires that the evidence be covered and repaired
quickly, but this isnt true in the suburbs. A person who
Changes and escapes might return home (or wherever he
was when the Change hit) and be forced to see for weeks
what he did. If the Uratha has received no instruction,
no context and no contact with others of his kind, the
constant reminder of what he did can destroy his sanity.

117
Werewolves who were suburbanites preChange develop in a number of different ways as suburban predators,
depending on how they viewed their homes before becoming Uratha. A suburbanite who hates the area and longs
to live in the big city or move out to the country probably
doesnt like the suburbs any better as a werewolf. Assuming that such a character still has a compelling reason to
live in the suburbs (fear of the big city, pack decides to
claim territory in the area, family that he feels beholden
to, etc.), he might find it harder to keep his Rage in check.
Surrounded every day by a territory that he detests, its
probably only a matter of time before he either endangers
or exposes his pack.
Alternately, a character who loved living in suburbia
preChange might find life there challenging, but not
insurmountable, as a werewolf. Subtlety is key, and such
Uratha learn when they can safely sneak through developments, when the local stores close (usually fairly early) and
how best to dodge police and other obstacles. The suburbs
can be an Irrakas dream territory just because they demand so much in the way of stealth.

Overpopulat ion
from Cit y/Country

If a pack living in a city or in the rural countryside

grows too large, members might split off and form a new
pack. Likewise, a single member of the pack who meets
other, less-experienced werewolves might leave his old
pack in order to take an alpha role in a new one. Whatever the reasons, the suburbs make an interesting place for
such a pack to establish itself. If desirable territories in the
city or country are already claimed, or if the pack is simply
ill-equipped to claim such territories, the suburbs make a
good middle ground.
Interestingly, this can lead to a central pack of
werewolves living in the city, with packs including former members, members relatives and members friends
claiming the surrounding suburbs. The packs probably
arent entirely loyal to one another, but they know about
each other and a loose community exists. This results in
extreme xenophobia among the werewolves, and any outsider pack trying to claim territory faces challenges, interrogation and surveillance (at the least). Lodges particular
to the area might form, and if the majority of the Uratha
belong to the same tribe, they might develop philosophies
based on the tribal totems vow that other members of the
tribe find heretical or offensive. Of course, the community
comes together when threatened, which means that creatures such as the Hosts are either non-existent or extremely
subtle in their machinations.

Taking Over

A pack of Uratha might seek to steal a suburban territory away from the current werewolf overseers. This works
much the same way as territory claims normally do the
invading pack needs to find a way to drive out (or assimi-

late) the resident pack without killing the packmembers,

or risk the degradation of their souls. In the suburbs,
however, there can be no midnight brawls in dark alleys
or howls of battle echoing faintly from distant plains. The
human population sleeps only yards away from where the
Uratha battle, and no matter how much the resident pack
wants to defend its homes or the new pack wants to take
the territory, both must remember: The Herd Must Not
Know.
Battles for territory in the suburbs, then, are largely
fought in the Hisil or in ways that humanity cant identify
as supernatural. Brawls can be fought in Hishu or even
Dalu form, provided that the combatants are willing to
spend a night in jail or have an easy escape route. Invader
packs find the areas of the territory that the residents are
trying to change or improve and work to stifle their efforts, forcing the residents to split their attention between
repelling the invaders and keeping their efforts on track.
Invaders might hunt down and kill wolf-blooded belonging to the residents, or, if the invaders balk at murdering
uragarum (some werewolves count them as the People),
intimidate them into leaving the area.
The spirit world can be a battlefield where packs clash
without worrying about discovery by humans, but the
packs do run the risk of powerful spirits entering the battle
after the Uratha have wounded each other. Depending
on what the areas loci are, reappearing in the physical
world can carry the risk of discovery. The Hisil is always
dangerous, and settling territorial battles there grants the
advantage to the resident pack.

Feat ures and

A dvantages

The suburbs boast a few advantages not found in the

cities or country. First, the human population, while not
as practiced in looking the other way as city dwellers, isnt
likely to take up arms against the Uratha. Suburbanites
are used to being protected, to hiding behind security
systems, neighborhood watches and responsive police
forces. As such, when a suburban family hears the snarls of
a werewolf fight near the family home, the family members arent likely to load up a few shotguns and go looking
for the source. Instead, they call the police and huddle
together, waiting for aid. Of course, given the hair-trigger
tempers of the Uratha and the fact that bullet wounds
dont slow them down much, this response is probably
the best possible one. It also gives the werewolves time to
resolve whatever they are doing and flee the area before
the police actually arrive.
Second, though its a small point, werewolves are
likely to be the only real predators in the area. Some
suburbs boast coyotes or foxes, and sometimes even large
wildcats or bears looking for garbage, but, for the most
part, such animals have long been driven from populated

Suburbia

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

areas. Since suburbanites rarely keep livestock, predators dont have much call to bother humans (other than
to root through their trash), but this doesnt stop deer,
rabbits and other herbivores from breeding out of control.
Werewolves, therefore, can hunt the suburban forests for
game and not worry about running afoul of a wolf pack.
They must be careful to conceal their hunts from the local
humans, but as long as the werewolves arent spotted, the
humans probably wont suspect wolves in their midst.
Suburbs dont have much in the way of nightlife.
Some boast bars, clubs or coffee shops that are open late
into the evening, but most shops and restaurants close
relatively early (compared to the city, which remains active all the time). Therefore, provided that the werewolves
avoid the few suburbanites who keep late hours, the
Uratha can go about their business unnoticed.
The problems of taking a suburban territory were discussed above, but what about defending such a territory?
Physical terrain plays a role, of course, but an invading
pack probably targets the places in the territory that the
resident pack holds dear. This might be the packmembers
homes or the homes of their families, loci that they commonly use or even restaurants or bars that they frequent.
The biggest advantage that the resident pack has, though,
is that people in suburbs notice outsiders. The more affluent the suburb, the faster an invading pack will be noticed
and probably harassed by the police. Of course, some
werewolves are adept at blending in with humans, and any
pack that wishes to claim territory in a suburb had best
learn how to do so. Fortunately, suburbs rarely have the
closeness between residents that small towns generate, and
so as long as the Uratha can suppress their tempers and
develop social skills to outstrip the effects of Primal Urge,
they can remain undetected.

Totems

Packs hunting for a totem spirit in the suburbs find a

greater degree of spirit diversity than they might expect.
Yes, deer-spirits and rabbit-spirits abound, but they dont
tend to be healthy since their physical counterparts are
typically overpopulated. A perceptive pack, though, can
find snake-spirits, dog-spirits (not every pack would consider such a spirit, but they are extremely loyal and helpful
once won over), cat-spirits, crow-spirits and raccoon-spirits. Consider the local fauna when presenting options for
spirits. A particular species that the locals know and that
serves as part of the cultural identity of the area assuredly
has a strong spiritual counterpart.
Animal spirits arent the only option, of course.
Spirits of vehicles (SUVs are especially appropriate in the
suburbs) and even buildings can serve as unorthodox pack
totems. Packs that take such totems must be careful when
traveling, however. The more uniquely suited to the suburbs a totem is, the more uncomfortable (and, potentially,
weaker) it becomes outside the territory.

118

No matter what the form of the totem, suburban

spirits often help their Uratha packs remain hidden and go
about their business without exposing the existence of the
People. Vicious, combative totems arent easily found in
suburbia, and if a pack with such a totem takes a suburban
territory, the totem will need to be reined in lest it disrupt
the local spiritscape.

Pack Totem :
Wasp the Vengeful Builder
Attributes: Power 2; Finesse 5; Resistance 2
Willpower: 4
Essence: 1 5 m ax
Initiative: 7
Defense: 5
Speed: 1 7 (species factor 1 0)
Size: 1
Corpus: 3
Influences: Perseverance ; Wasps
Numina: Material Vision, Unspoken Communication (as
the Gift)
Bonuses: Crafts 1 ( given); Stealth 1 ( given); Essence pool
4 points (story)
Ban: The pack cannot let visitors into their home without
inflicting pain upon them, even something as minor as an
overly firm handshake.
Cost: 1 2

Wasps make their homes under the eaves of houses,

outside swimming pools, in hollow logs in backyards and
anywhere else they find suitable. They can build a new
nest in less than a day, and when called to defend it,
they are vicious. A pack that follows Wasp the Vengeful
Builder will be industrious in the improvement and defense of its home, and the packmembers will never forget a
slight. The packs living quarters probably swarm with the
insects, even during colder months, but the Uratha never
seem to get stung.

Loci

Suburban loci arent necessarily more common than

urban or rural loci, but suburban loci do tend to be easier
to find because the rest of the landscape feels so bland
from a spiritual perspective. From the Hisil, especially,
finding loci is easy because the terrain tends to be flat
the natural landscape is gone due to human influence, but the human-made structures dont have enough
invested in them to appear strongly.
Thus, objects in the suburbs arent likely to be loci
simply because of their physical locations. The emotions
and situations required to turn a simple object into a locus
are many and varied, and so no commonality exists among
suburban loci. Below are three possible loci to use in
suburbs, but feel free to customize them as necessary for
your troupes territory.

119

The Gaze bo

at the

Center

of

Town

Rating:
Resonance: Varies
The center of town rarely corresponds to the literal
geographical center of a suburb. Rather, the term refers to
wherever the two main streets intersect. City hall is usually in that area, as are a variety of shops and restaurants
(or, if the suburb has fallen on hard times, a number of
boarded-up storefronts). Normally, a wooden gazebo can
be found in this area as well. Summers might find a band
playing in that gazebo, while during spring people take
shelter there to smoke cigarettes. Couples might rent the
gazebo for weddings, while younger couples use it for
other sorts of rendezvous during the night.
The gazebo makes for a good
locus, but the resonance
of such a locus varies
based depending
on what kind of
activity takes
place there. For
example:
The Sex
Gazebo: The
gazebo at the
center of a suburb of Portland,
Oregon, is hidden by a copse
of trees and not
visible from the
road. Its also
just a short walk
from the high
school, and, as
a result, randy
young people
like to sneak into
the gazebo to satisfy
their lusts. Its become a kind
of rite of passage to do the gazebo, and the Essence that
the locus produces is tinged with lust. The Hisil surrounding the gazebo crawls with lust-spirits, waiting to feast
on the couplings of the locals. Sometimes one of these
spirits Urges a student, but none have yet Claimed one.
The ground around the gazebo in the spirit wilds is always
grassy and a pleasant temperature, even during the dead
of winter. The grass is soft and inviting, and the air is
fragrant. Spirits around the gazebo dont attack Uratha,
normally, though some spirits have been known to use
their Influence to nudge werewolves into forbidden trysts.
Local Uratha even tell stories of female werewolves impregnated by lust-spirits, and giving birth to spirit-children
who grew up to be incubus-like creatures who could drain
the life from their lovers.

The Bloody Gazebo: In Bramton, Tennessee, the

gazebo was once a gallows. Some of the same timbers used
in that gallows were used to construct the gazebo in 1950.
People say that the gazebo is haunted, that if you stand
in the exact center and jump up a few inches, youll feel
a pain in your neck and hear a horrible snapping sound.
The Essence this gazebo produces is tainted with pain
and terror. Whether or not any actual ghosts linger in
Twilight around the gazebo, the Shadow is nightmarish.
An immense bonfire burns constantly near the gazebo,
and spirits of fear, death and hate swirl about. A terrifying
spirit called the Hangman appears every half moon, and
more than one Elodoth come to
speak to it or Rahu come
to kill it has ended up
swinging lifeless by his
neck.
The Rallying Gazebo: The
center of a small
town outside
Hartford, Connecticut, served
as the point
where a small
band of men and
women fended
off an enemy in
the late 1800s.
Thats what local
lore says, anyway. The truth is
that the people
fought and
killed two crazed
Uratha, but Lunacy and time have
muddled the story
so much that no one,
not even local werewolves, know
the truth. Whatever the case, the gazebo
there is now a locus, and the Essence it produces resonates
with valor and community. The spirit world around the
center of town is bright and vibrant. Spirits of bravery and
sacrifice abound, and even animal-spirits have a certain
nobility. Whats more, the spirits in the area hate the
Uratha with a blistering passion, and so a pack using the
locus to step sideways had best be prepared for a fight.
Stepping sideways at any gazebo is chancy because the
structure tends to be in plain sight of several buildings, and
possibly the whole town square. Entering the Hisil isnt usually too much of a problem, but exiting is difficult because
the Uratha so rarely know exactly what is happening in the
material world. Even at night, there tends to be some traffic
in the center of town, and so werewolves are advised to find
an alternate route or at least be prepared to run.

Suburbia

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

The Neighborhood D ogs Collar

Rating:
Resonance: Protection
No ones sure where Buddy came from. Some people
think he escaped from the local animal pound and was
unofficially adopted by the neighborhood, others think
he belonged to an old man and refused to leave the area
when his master died. Whatever the case, Buddy is a slim,
old mutt, white with brown splotches, and he loves people.
He is especially fond of children, and he likes to hang
around the local public pool during the summer, watching the kids swim. Everybody has a story about how they
watched Buddy jump in and save a drowning child, but
the parents say its just a myth.
The truth, as usual, has elements of many of the legends. Buddy did once belong to a member of the community who died, but his owner was a young boy. The child
made a collar for him out of leather, and the two of them
were seldom seen separately. The kids in the neighborhood learned to recognize the jangling sound that Buddys
collar made, and over time the collar became a weak
locus.
The animal warden did take Buddy away once.
Buddys owner, on a dare, rode his bike out of his neighborhood and into the city. There, the boy was assaulted,
beaten bloody and left in the gutter. Buddy, trying to
keep up, arrived too late to help the boy, and sat howling until the police arrived. Buddy spent a night in the
pound, and it was during that night that Buddy became
Ridden. A dog-spirit possessed the mutt, and the natural
loyalty Buddy felt toward children merged with the loyalty
common to many canine-spirits. When Buddy returned
home the next day, he refused to enter his old house, but
patrolled the neighborhood guarding the children.
The dog-spirit possessing Buddy has made him stronger and faster than most dogs, and given him the ability
to sense fear, hatred and other malicious emotions. Buddy
doesnt age and doesnt need to eat, though he gratefully
accepts the treats the neighborhood children bring him.
Anyone who enters that neighborhood with the intent
to harm the people who live there faces an unlikely but
extremely vicious foe.
The collar Buddy wears is still a locus, but can only
manifest its power when Buddy has remained in the same
place for a week or so. Buddy has attracted a pack of dogspirits, however, and they guard him from rival spirits and
bring him food and water to discourage him from roaming. They are capable of Materializing if the need is great
enough.

Buddy
Mental Attributes: Intelligence 1 , Wits 3 , Resolve 2
Physical Attributes: Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 3
Social Attributes: Presence 3, Manipulation 1 , Composure 3
Mental Skills: Investigation 1 , Occult 1

120

Physical Skills: Athletics (Running) 3 , Brawl (Bite) 3 ,

Stealth 3 , Survival 4
Social Skills: Animal Ken (Dogs) 2, Empathy (Kids) 2,
Intimidation 2, Streetwise 1
Merits: Direction Sense, Fleet of Foot 2, Iron Stomach
Willpower: 5
Essence: 1 0
Health: 6
Initiative: 5
Defense: 3
Speed: 1 2 (species factor 6, Fleet of Foot included)
Size: 3
Aspects: Chorus (dog-spirits), Father Wolfs Speed (as the
Gift)
Weapons/Attacks:
Type
Damage Dice Pool
Bite
2 (L)
8

The Crawlspace
Rating:
Resonance: Fear
The house was built in 1878 for the richest family
in Detroit, Michigan, the Haywards. They built outside
the city proper, of course. The family consisted of both
parents, 10 children, three servants, two grandparents and
a wayward uncle, and the house was large enough to hold
them all. The youngest daughter, Emily, was only six years
old when the Hayward family moved in, and she found the
crawlspace after only five weeks. Three weeks after that,
two of her brothers held her in the crawlspace until she
suffocated. They werent sure why theyd done it, and since
the family was so rich, no charges or official reports ever
surfaced.
The wooden beam in the crawlspace, the one that
Emily had clutched and clawed while she died, became
a locus. It might have remained weak, had not the other
children dared each other to crawl into the tunnel and
touch it. The locus took in their fear, their dread and their
guilt over what happened to Emily and grew in power over
time.
The Hayward family passed that house down through
generations, and every generation of children slithered
into the crawlspace to touch the beam. Then, in 1988, the
family finally went bankrupt. The house was far too big
for a single family to purchase, but it worked nicely as a
bed and breakfast. Wealthy couples from Detroit ventured
out to the suburb and stayed in the old house, marveling
at the quaint decorations. Their children, though, always
seemed to find their way to the basement, and returned
later, clothes dirty and disheveled and a haunted look in
their eyes.
The house is present in the Shadow, but many of
the walls are missing. As the Haywards possessions were
sold off to pay the familys debts, the spirit representation
of the family, bound up in the house, suffered, too. The
beam, however, remains as strong as it ever was. Spirits of

121
mice, rats and other house vermin flock to it, and fearspirits consume them like hawks. A werewolf using the
beam to step sideways only needs to be in the basement
to do so, but in the Hisil the basement is a much smaller
space. Urhan or Urshul are more comfortable for negotiating the spirit world around the beam than Dalu or even
Hishu. Although the basement is accessible from the
outside in the material world through a wooden staircase
and double doors, in the spirit world the only exit leads
into the house. The spirits of the house are old, angry and
senile from years of slowly being stripped of their finery,
and they dont take kindly to interlopers.

Sample Personae

The following characters are examples of the kinds of

people suburban characters might meet. Because suburbanites can come from anywhere, moving to the area with
a new job or following family, any of these people could
be wolf-blooded or even nuzusul and the pack wont
know it until it becomes obvious.

Just ine Fowles,

the Local H istory E xpert
Quote: That house was built in 1853. Of course, in
those days
Background: Justine is a lifelong resident of the
suburb. She went to college at the local university, married
a local man and watched sadly as her children left the
area for other states. She worked all her life in the public
library, and when she finally retired, she took a job at the
Historical Society. She now works to preserve century
homes (houses built more than 100 years ago), historical
landmarks and the general sense of identity of her town.
Watching local business owners die or retire with no one
to succeed them hurts her, and she wishes she had the
money and the energy to buy and restore some of the
grand properties. Although she doesnt know it, some of
these properties contain loci (and she might well know
stories about a cursed locket or a magical statue, even
if she doesnt know the truth).
Description: Justine is a kindly, but stern, woman in
her early 80s. She wears her hair short and still regards
it as a rebellious act. She is thin and frail, but her mind
is whip-sharp and she remembers almost everything she
hears or reads. She does enjoy pretending to be deaf on
occasion, especially when people offer to buy the house in
which the Historical Society meets.
Storytelling Hints: Justine wavers between being
happy about her long, full life and worrying about what
will happen to her town once shes gone. Shes of a strong
enough constitution that the revelation of the supernatural wouldnt kill her, but experiencing the Lunacy assuredly would. She considers herself a moral person, but is
more interested in preserving the spirit of her town than
abiding by every law.

Abilities:
Local History (dice pool 9) Justine knows almost
everything about her town. Dirty secrets, rumors, historical
fact, scandals she either remembers it or can find the
book that details it.
Politics (dice pool 7) She also keeps abreast of
current events, and makes sure she knows what local and
statewide political candidates are going to do about commerce laws and conservation.

D on Butch Bagrowski ,
the Neighborhood Watch Leader
Quote: OK, remember: Treat all guns like theyre
loaded, so dont point them at anything you wouldnt shoot.
Background: Butch joined the Marines right out of
high school and served his country well for eight years.
When he returned to his hometown, he was horrified. His
old neighborhood was a wreck. Stores were boarded up,
houses were in disrepair and the population was dropping as people left the area. Butch, a natural leader and
an obstinate man, refused to stomach it. He took a job
coaching football at the local high school, and, recruiting
help from the student body, soon had his neighborhood
looking beautiful again. Stores started returning; when he
found a man trying to sell fast food franchises, Butch ran
the salesman out of town with bluster, volume and good
old American intimidation.
The towns on the rebound, now, but Butch isnt half
done. He wants the town to be the way he remembers it
growing up, and that means keeping the high school kids
out of the bars, the filth out of the video stores and the developers out of town entirely. He doesnt have the schooling in law or business to know exactly how to proceed,
but hes tenacious and driven, and so has been hitting the
books. Meanwhile, he trains the locals in gun safety, home
defense and empowerment. Doesnt matter how the town
looks like if we dont feel safe, he often says.
Description: Butch is a burly man in his late 40s. Hes
a bit plump around the middle (civilian life isnt as rigorous as military life, and beer is much easier to come by),
but still very strong. He has a hard gaze and a bone-crushing handshake, and is never without his coachs jacket.
Storytelling Hints: Butch is a no-nonsense guy. He
hates being called Don or, worse, Mr. Bagrowski. He
doesnt consider businessmen, especially franchise operators, to be real people, but rather parasites getting rich off
other folks ideas. Hes always keen to hear ways to make
his town some money or about business ventures, but the
minute the word franchise comes up, he breaks off talks.
Talking about football, the military or the sorry state of
the country is a sure way to get his attention.
Abilities:
Brawl (dice pool 6) Butch stays in shape by boxing, and is proficient in hand-to-hand combat. Hes wiser
about getting into fights than he was in his youth, and if

Suburbia

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

faced with a stronger or faster opponent, breaks bones and
fights to immobilize.
Intimidation (dice pool 6) Butch is a large and
frighteningly intense man.
Firearms (dice pool 7) While never a sniper or
marksman, Butch visits a local range often and has a
license to carry a concealed pistol.

M ike Lewis,

the Vandal
Quote: Shit, I didnt know it would burn that fast!
Background: Mike has never been the best-adjusted
kid on the block. He never tortured animals or anything
so extreme, but he did like to tie his action figures to
bottle rockets, throw rocks at car tires and paint graffiti.
His parents would love to believe that hes just intelligent
and looking for an outlet or that kids at school pick on
him and hes displacing his rage, but neither of those theories have much evidence. Mikes not stupid, but hes by no
means brilliant. Hes not the most popular kid in school,
but he isnt the class whipping boy, either. Mikes in the
middle of everything, and perhaps that is why he likes to
mess with people.
His parents have tried to keep him from sneaking out
at night, but hes good at it. Mike isnt creative enough to
think up new and interesting ways to commit vandalism,
but the Internet gives him a constant stream of ideas. Hes
lately taken to putting dry ice in plastic bottles and then
sticking them in mailboxes (when the vapor from the ice
builds up too much pressure, the bottle explodes, usually
taking the mailbox with it). Hes especially interested in
houses whose owners he rarely sees.
Description: Mike is 15, skinny and pockmarked with
acne, and otherwise nondescript. He wears band T-shirts
and baggy jeans, but never seems to fit into any particular
style. He carries a lighter and a small pack of firecrackers
except when at school (the security guards tend to search
him often).
Storytelling Hints: Depending the story you want
to tell, Mike could be a troubled kid who needs help, a
budding serial killer, a potential Ridden, a nuzusul or just
a nobody snooping around the packs territory. If hes wolfblooded, of course, he has a better chance of remembering
the characters and their true nature. He might demand
that the characters make him a werewolf, or he might just
try to find someone online who believes him.
Abilities:
Stealth (dice pool 7) Mike is quiet and easy to
overlook, and practiced at sneaking around.
Larceny (dice pool 6) Years of sneaking out of his
parents house and shoplifting vandalism supplies have
made Mike light-fingered.

O fficer Ben M ac M acD onald,

Jumpy Cop
Quote: Im telling you, they put needles in the coin slots
of phone booths. Its not just an urban legend!

122

Background: After graduating from the local university with an English degree, Ben MacDonald looked
around in the city for a job and came up short. He thought
about returning to school, but wasnt sure what graduate
program hed pursue, and didnt feel like racking up any
more student loans anyway. A drunken conversation with
his cousin, a cop, at a family picnic led him to apply to the
police academy. Ben figured that as a cop in the suburbs,
he had little chance of getting shot on the job, and the
work would be steady.
He was right, up to a point. During his rookie year,
he responded to a call about a fight in a parking lot. He
arrived to find one man lying on the blacktop with a
sharpened stick protruding from his chest and another
man running away into the darkness. Mac gave chase, but
couldnt catch up with the man. Returning to the scene of
the crime, he found the corpse gone but the stick, red
with blood, was lying on the ground.
From that moment, Macs easygoing demeanor disappeared. He had been reading horror novels since grade
school and knew a fair bit about folklore. He started asking questions of other cops, and found far more of these
odd stories than he was prepared for. He now works the
night shift, terrified of what he might find, but even more
terrified that it might find him unprepared.
Description: Mac is in his early 30s. He is athletic,
with a slim runners build. He has a nasty facial tic that
flares up when someone asks him to take a day shift. Mac
used to be handsome, but hes too on edge to be attractive
now, and the lack of sunlight has given him a washed-out
look.
Storytelling Hints: Mac isnt terrified all the time,
just whenever he stops to think about it. He often has his
nose buried in a book of folklore or in a horror novel (he
figures that horror authors must have some idea whats really going on, and writes them letters constantly). Despite
it all, Mac is not a coward, and considers his profession
honorable and necessary.
Abilities:
Awareness (dice pool 9) Mac is extremely hard to
surprise. He is used to watching shadows and corners.
Firearms (dice pool 8) Mac practices his marksmanship daily. He doesnt wish to lose his cool when he
finally has to confront them.

H enry Smith,

the

Witness

Quote: No, we havent met. I just have one of those

faces.
Background: Enrico Belucci was an up-and-comer in
the Mafia. He never killed anyone, though he was quite
adept at scaring the hell out of people. When he was
pinched for the first time, he was almost 30 and quite sure
he could do a few years for the family. The cops threatened, offered and cajoled, and finally hit on a way to break
him. They threatened to reveal that he was gay.

123
Knowing that his conservative Catholic family would
have him shot for being a rat or for being homosexual,
Enrico decided to save his own life. He ratted out some
guys he never liked anyway, took his place in the Witness
Protection Program and moved to a suburb across the
country. Hed never admit it to the Feds, but hes actually
enjoying it. The suburb he lives in is liberal enough that
he can be out without having people glare at him, and
he finds that being openly gay keeps people from guessing
the truth.
Of course, Enrico or Henry Smith, as hes now
known didnt share everything that he knew about the
family. Some of the things his family was involved in were
too gruesome ever to be revealed.
Description: Henry has olive skin, but keeps his
black hair lightened. Now in his early 40s, he lives alone
but is a fixture at the local bookstore and coffee shops.
Years of living with organized crime figures taught him to
play straight remarkably well, and so most people dont
realize hes gay unless he tells them.
Storytelling Hints: Happy in his new life, Henry
vaguely worries that the family will track him down and
kill him. Its been almost a decade, though, and so far hes
seen no sign of them. He knows that the Italian Mafia
has been losing influence, and he reckons that the family
probably has little time to waste on him. Hes wrong. The
family has been searching for him, but not because he
squealed on him. A certain branch of his family has been
dabbling in the occult for centuries, and they need the
heart of a traitor to perform a rite that will supposedly
return them to glory. They already have the traitor picked
out they just need to find him.
Abilities:
Persuasion (dice pool 8) Henry is an extremely
approachable man. Hes easy to talk to and people often
find themselves agreeing with him without noticing.
Intimidation (dice pool 7) Henry doesnt have to
shake people down anymore, but he remembers how.

The years crept by, and Logan bought the land surrounding the church. At the time, the land was forested,
but Logan began harvesting that wood and selling it almost immediately. He drew up plans to build a small community center on the land (run by the church, of course),
and squeezed his growing congregation for the money.
And, once again, he got enough to build the center and
renovate his kitchen, too.
The Reverend has received complaints, of course,
from the people living around his church about the
destruction of the forest and the noise of the construction
machines, but hes adept at making anyone who stands in
his way seem unChristian. His next project, hes decided,
is to buy the land across the street from the church and
clear it. He isnt sure what hell build there, but those trees
that grow there now dont serve any purpose.
Description: Logan is a fat, jowly man in his early
50s. He has a ready smile and a pleasant demeanor, and
shies away from fire-and-brimstone, preferring to focus on
peoples responsibilities as Christians. He has been married for over 20 years, but he and his wife have never had
children.
Storytelling Hints: The Reverend isnt a malicious
person, but he is greedy and self-righteous. Most of the
local leaders city council members, mayor and so on
attend his church and donate to his causes. He shies
away from political debates, wishing to keep his church
as broadly accessible as possible. The outdoors make him
nervous, though he isnt sure why, and he expresses this by
buying and building whenever possible.
Abilities:
Oration (dice pool 6) Reverend Logan gives a
good, if bland, sermon. Hes pleasant to listen to and rarely
challenges people to believe or think more than they
want.
Finance (dice pool 8) The Reverend is a skilled
financier, and it would take a lot of careful searching to
find that he had misappropriated any money.

Rev. David Logan,

E xpansion O pt ions

the

Profiteer

Quote: The building expansions on schedule. I just need

the permits. And a few more donations, of course.
Background: David Logan is a Protestant minister
who has done great things for his community. When he
arrived, the church was a tiny affair, barely large enough
to hold the few people who bothered to show up. David
had some money, though, and he spread the cash around
town. He visited everyone who moved into his neighborhood or any of the surrounding ones, and he put up
fliers anywhere he was allowed. His flock grew, slowly but
surely, and he passed the collection plate at least twice per
sermon. Five years after he arrived, he had enough money
to expand the church. And, as it happened, to build an
in-ground pool on his property, but Reverend Logan was
private about his home life, so no one noticed that.

The borders of a suburban packs territory are nicely

delineated, as long as the werewolves are willing to use
human maps to represent those borders. A pack can easily
claim one suburb as their territory, although if the suburb
includes a park or forest that crosses into a different
township (as is often the case), the pack might stretch
its territory to include the entirety of that feature. If no
other packs are around to contest the borders, it doesnt
much matter, but if other Uratha are or become present,
the pack needs to be able to enforce its claims. This is also
true if the pack wishes to expand its territory.
Not all suburban packs feel the need to do so, however. Suburbs are microcosms they typically include everything that a community needs to function. The pack,
therefore, doesnt necessarily wish to claim more land.

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Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

After all, patrolling and maintaining one suburb might be

enough. Furthermore, local spirits might actually encourage a pack to expand, since the pack is likely to try and
make the spiritscape consistent throughout its territory
(which thus expands the spirits areas of influence).
If the pack does decide to expand, however, benefits
to claiming two or more suburbs do exist. For one thing,
each suburb typically has its own, albeit small, police
force. Rivalries between neighboring forces are common,
and communication isnt always a given. A pack can
therefore retreat to one suburb after causing trouble in
another without an area-wide manhunt being called, depending on what the pack did, of course. Having a larger
hunting ground speaks well of the packs skills, provided
that the packmembers can maintain the territory, and
claiming large areas of suburb territory is likely to give the
pack a reputation for its ability to hide among humans.
But a suburban pack doesnt necessarily need to claim
more suburb territory. What if the pack wishes to push
into the city, and claim whatever urban territory borders
the packs own? Or, conversely, suppose the pack moves
further out and claims rural territory in addition to the
packs suburban hunting grounds? In such cases, the pack
often regards as its non-suburban turf as its true hunting ground, where the bulk of its fighting and hunting is
done, while the relatively safe suburbs are where the pack
meets, relaxes and resides. Of course, the pack needs to

124

devote time and energy to maintaining (or at least staying

aware of) the spiritual balance in the suburbs, lest enemies
the packmembers didnt even know about attack them at
home.

Potent ial Threat s

A suburb can boast many of the same threats as

a rural area or a city. Vampires, mages, Ridden, Hosts
and hostile spirits can all lurk in the towns between the
concrete jungle and the country, though these beings must
take extra care to avoid detection. That said, the suburbs
boast some special dangers and considerations.

Secrecy

Perhaps the greatest threat in a suburban territory is

exposure. People in the suburbs dont have the knowledge
of their neighbors lives that small-town folk have, but suburbanites certainly dont have the layer of callousness that
residents of larger cities develop, either. Suburbanites are
xenophobic, but the definition of stranger is somewhat
different from a person we dont know, since a great deal
of familiarity simply isnt present. Werewolves, of course,
fit nicely into the suburban definition of stranger. They
just seem dangerous, even if they own property, and they

125
dont follow normal routines. A group of people walking
around in a neighborhood after dark raises eyebrows in
the neighborhood watch, meaning that the Uratha might
be followed or questioned by the local security force.
Residents of suburbia are often told to wave to or otherwise acknowledge strangers in their neighborhoods, just
to let them know that they have been seen and noted. A
werewolf pack claiming territory in suburbia needs to be
stealthy and well trained in blending in with humans.

A Note

on

Urhan Form

A wolf is not a dog. A wolf might be

mistaken for a large dog, if the witness only
saw a canine form darting across a street.
Someone walking a wolf on a leash, however,
is going to leave an impression, no matter how
much she claims that her pet is a wolf-mix
or a husky. Suburbanites who see wolves
in their neighborhoods are very likely to call
animal control or the police (and remember
that suburban police are often well-armed and
bored), and one never knows which otherwise
meek denizens of the suburbs are avid hunters
or combat veterans. Best to stick to Hishu form
unless absolutely necessary. The Partial Change
Gift is a must for suburban packs, just to allow
tracking without changing shape.

What happens to a werewolf pack in its suburban

territory if the local populace becomes aware of the packmembers existence? The Lunacy probably prevents true
awareness. The suburbanites arent going to start carrying
silver knives around or hunting the Uratha after dark.
Instead, police presence in the area might increase. Violent crimes that are similar in nature draw the attention
of federal agents investigating serial crimes, since these
agents believe (often correctly) that suburban police forces
are ill-equipped to handle such occurrences. While a
small squad of humans, even well-trained and well-armed
humans, isnt much of a threat to a pack of werewolves,
the Uratha cant just kill the humans and leave it at that.
When suburbanites go missing or turn up dead, people
notice, and the momentum that this kind of fear generates
can force werewolves out of their territory.
Consider: A pack of werewolves runs afoul of an enemy, and the fight gets out of hand. The police arrive, but
the Uratha slaughter them as well. To avoid having bodies
with huge claw marks lying around, the Uratha drag the
corpses into the Hisil but now the police have simply
vanished in the middle of a call about an animal fight. In
a matter of days, pictures of the police officers adorn every
bulletin board. The community bands together, wearing
ribbons or forming tight neighborhood watches. Fund-

ing and support for the police swell, and, of course, the
story is picked up by the media and repeated far and wide
(which might well draw werewolf hunters to the area).
Citywide curfews may even take effect, and they are easier
to enforce in the suburbs than in the cities because there
isnt much nightlife anyway. In the end, there isnt an easy
way to resolve this situation, other than either leaving
the territory or avoiding any suspicious activity for several
months. In the suburbs, an ounce of prevention really is
worth a pound of cure.

Cult s

Wealthy suburbs are a good breeding ground for cults.

A large group of people, many of whom attend the same
church and are active in the same sorts of leisure activities, is a captive audience to a persuasive enough leader.
While in a small town a cult might grow large enough to
encompass most of the citizenry, in the suburbs the cults
strength comes from two sources: its invisibility and the
influence of its leaders.
The cult might meet in one members home, but if
most of the other members live in the same neighborhood, it wont even be apparent that the house is hosting
a gathering. In a development of large, almost identical
houses, the members can lose themselves amidst the twisting streets with little problem (being tracked by scent, of
course, can thwart this). The cult might not be involved
in anything illegal, but if one of the members is an influential police officer or even a city official, the cult can get
away with all manner of crime.
Werewolves can usually tear through cult members,
unless membership in the cult comes with spiritual or
magical perks (perhaps members become Ridden, or perhaps the leader is a vampire feeding his most devoted followers on his blood). The real danger of such cults comes
in the spirits that they might attract and in the possibility
of those spirits attacking or converting mortals connected
to the pack. Cults have also been known to indulge in
unsavory practices such as cannibalism and demon summoning, however, and so might be more formidable than a
pack would initially assume.

Story Hook
The Nak ed Circle
Boredom makes people do strange things.
In the tiny Los Angeles suburb of Happy Valley,
a handful of wealthy, lonely and bored people
formed a sex cult called the Naked Circle. All of
the members are married, and the cults laws
strictly forbid both partners in a marriage belonging to the cult. The Naked Circle is about primal,
animalistic need. The cults figurehead was, up
until recently, a man named Frank Pike. Pike was
at one point a gifted writer, but years of drug and
alcohol abuse dulled his mind until hes now only

Suburbia

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

capable of repeating the same hackneyed phrases
and arguments. Hed found, though, that they
sound good the first time, and thats enough to
convince bored wives into his circle.
The cult takes occasional camping trips into
the nearby Angeles National Forest, where cult
members spend weekends indulging in their
lascivious whims. The cult is non-threatening,
or it was until Rita Govern joined. Rita, the
daughter of a Mexican immigrant, married an
important Los Angeles businessman, but felt
some vital passion missing in her life and that
longing led her to Pike. While in the woods with
the cult, however, her magical prowess exerted
itself. Rita is now a mage, and shows a strange
predisposition toward spirit magic. The camping
trips are now becoming orgiastic rites designed
to put the Circle members in touch with their
spirit totems, but the truth is that Rita is
carelessly disrupting the Hisil in the area. Sooner
or later, something is going to notice.

Suburban Spirit s

As discussed previously, the suburban Hisil tends to

be flat and unimpressive, due to years of human development and mass-produced houses and goods. That doesnt
mean the Shadow of the suburbs is safe, however, or
that the spirit denizens arent dangerous. As with almost
everything suburban, the hithim simply tend to be subtler.
Uratha studying suburban spirit denizens might notice the
following traits.

Spirit Predat ion

One effect of human development on the suburbs is
a reduction in biodiversity. That is, some species die out
while no new ones are introduced. Prey species such as
deer, rabbits and even some forms of insect therefore breed
unchecked, and their spiritual analogs also become more
numerous. This can have two different effects.
One possibility is that the spirits of a given descant
feed voraciously on each other, resulting in fewer spirits,
but greater power in those spirits that do exist. Since spirits become more specialized and unique as they grow in
power, its not uncommon for a suburb to boast one herd of
deer-spirits, but for each of those spirits to have a special
name, ban and personality. Such spirits might even claim
territory, especially if two buck-spirits exist. One might
brave the highways, daring car-spirits to catch him, while
another creeps into peoples yards and consumes the spirits
of gardens. A pack of Uratha might laugh at the notion
of a powerful and deadly deer-spirit, but the werewolves
would be well-advised to remember that spirits do not
operate under the same rules and modus operandi as their
physical counterparts.

126

Conversely, the spirits of a specific descant might

run unchecked. Spirits of rabbits, for instance, feed on
spirits of grass and other plants, and spawn more of their
own kind with each passing month. This makes finding
one particular rabbit-spirit nearly impossible, since the
spirits rarely gain enough power to rise above the rank of
Gaffling. If a pack offends the rabbit-spirits of the area,
however, the packmembers might find the Shadow of their
territory undermined with tunnels or picked clean of vegetation. While weak spirits such as these dont normally
attack Uratha, its not out of the question, particularly if
the spirits can catch a wounded werewolf alone.

Bit ter Predators

Humans dont feel safe with wolves, bears and other
large animals roaming amidst their homes. Most nowsuburban areas were once home to these animals, but the
species have been killed or driven off by human encroachment. The spirits of these predators sometimes die off as
well, but sometimes the spirits refuse to leave and instead
find other methods of survival.
It is not impossible for a spirit with no physical
analog to survive, preying on the spirits of its natural prey
(wolf-spirits on deer-spirits, for instance, or bobcat-spirits
on rabbit-spirits). Since these predator-spirits arent likely
to find other members of their own descant to consume,
however, these spirits must either travel to find such spirits
or convince Uratha to track down such spirits for them.
Doing so can be a way for a pack to strengthen its totem,
and can also be a method of chiminage for a werewolf who
wishes to learn a Gift.
Displaced predator-spirits have another option, of
course: become magath. The suburbs have a plethora
of spirits to consume, if the predator is willing to hunt
outside its own descant. A pack might face the spirit of a
fox that has been preying on cat-spirits, a bear-spirit prone
to eating the spirits of SUVs or a wolf-spirit that has taken
to slipping into garages and feeding on tool-spirits. While
most magath have only two component spirits, suburban
predator magath might have three or more, depending on
how old they are and how their chosen prey has evolved.
The bear-spirit mentioned previously might have started
with station wagons, then moved to minivans and only
now begun feasting on SUVs. The common thread, of
course, is large vehicles are often used to transport families, which plays into the bears role as a guardian of cubs.

Sample Conflict :
H omogeneit y

The following section isnt a sample story per se, but

merely a the framework for a conflict that would work best
in a suburban setting. It uses some of the characters and
places mentioned in this chapter, but the Storyteller can
(and is encouraged to) alter these details to best fit her
chronicle.

127
Locations, be they stores, playgrounds or even cities,
have spirits. These spirits, as mentioned on p. 266 of
Werewolf: The Forsaken, can grow in power by consuming spirits within the physical space the location represents. The suburbs have spirits, too, often resembling the
spirit of the city that the suburbs border with a few subtle
differences.
The suburb-spirit in question is hungry and ambitious, and wishes to consume all of the spirits within the
borders of the town. This is a monumental undertaking,
and requires finding and devouring every animal-, vehicle, building-, elemental- and ideological-spirit in the area.
Such an act would surely take years, if not decades, and
every gust of wind can bring in new spirits. The suburbspirit has a plan, however, and the humans in the area are
playing right into it.
Making the suburb resemble every other suburb allows a certain homogeneity in the spiritscape, which, in
turn, allows the suburb-spirit to draw power from a wider
base. In theory, if the suburb resembles the towns that
border it closely enough, the spirit could consume those
suburb-spirits as well, growing to the level of Minor God.
The assimilation of all of the minor spirits in the area
would still take time, but if the spirit could extend its Influence to every store (or, worse, every branch of a chain)
in that area, the spirit could conceivably devour any
spirit that ventured too near. In effect, the suburb-spirit
becomes a perverse combination of weed and predator,
spreading through the Shadow like kudzu and consuming
the spirits the suburb-spirit catches.
Of course, not every human being in the suburb is an
unknowing accomplice. People such as Justine Fowles and
Butch Bagrowski are actively working to keep the unique
facets of the area. Vandals such as Mike Lewis cause
destruction and chaos, shaking up the material world

and the Hisil alike. Beings such as Buddy, the dog-Ridden

or the Hangman-spirit of the Bloody Gazebo also have
a vested interest in thwarting the suburb-spirit. Any of
these beings can clue a Uratha pack in to what is happening (either by telling the packmembers outright or just
getting their attention), but can also act as adversaries to
the werewolves if the beings feel that they would aid the
suburb-spirit for any reason.

The Suburb-Spirit
Depending on how powerful this spirit has
grown, it might take any number of forms. At
early stages, the suburb-spirit might look like a
normal human or animal resident of the suburbs,
but drool as though constantly hungry or possess an elongated maw or limbs, the better to
snatch spirits out of the air. A suburb-spirit that
has reached the level of Minor God might simply
blend in to the background in the Hisil, and communicate with Uratha by rearranging letters on
street signs, speaking through the mouths of
passerby or manipulating sounds such as wind,
the hum of insects or the background noise of
traffic.
The spirits ban probably depends on the
city in question a spirit representing a suburb
of Chicago is likely to have a very different ban
than that of a suburb of Orlando. The pack
might have to journey into the city itself to
learn the ban, research the history of the suburb
or find a spirit or werewolf who remembers
when the town was founded.

Suburbia

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

War Zone:
The Organ Pipe
Cactus National
Monument
Overview

About 550 square miles of land, give or take, the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was proclaimed in
1937 to protect and preserve the only region of land where
the organ pipe cactus and several other rare plants grow
naturally in the United States. Located in the Sonoran
Desert and sharing 30 miles of the United States-Mexico
border, the monument is a beautiful tourist attraction
in southern Arizona, and also an occasional destination
for American naturalists and botanists. A place of great
beauty, it is also the focus of great rage and pain.
Long arms of the organ pipe cacti eclipse the sun in
the spirit-reflection of the Monument, even though its rays
scorch every last inch of the ground. Small cacti and other
plants of all local varieties dot the landscape, and even
the tallest flora dont obscure vision of the horizon, many
miles away. Two of the tallest organ pipe cacti, also present in the real world, are loci of natural Essence. Each is
a paragon of its species, green arms towering into the pale
blue sky with needles sharp enough to pierce armor. As
someone approaches, they glisten with apparent deadliness, communicating threat effectively. From just beyond
the defending cacti, things look on from their positions
of safety, their attentions nervous and angry at the same
time.
Exploring the Shadow further reveals the tumult
there. Between the two loci, two spirit courts fight each
other for control of both. Bolts of pure Essence fly across
the no-spirits land, and some alliances shift as easily as
sand. At the same time, a new spirit of great power from
the southern border treads slowly across the Pipe Cactus
territory, burning any lesser spirit that refuses to swear to
it and leaving a trail of spirit-glass in its wake. In time, this
creature may force the warring courts into a temporary
allegiance against it.
Within the spirit park, only the Kris Eggle Visitor
Center stands as evidence that humans have ever stepped
here. Named for a Border Patrol agent killed by a drug

128

runner, the Visitor Center stands out sharply in the spirit

desert, now a minor locus resonant with honor and regretted loss. Every bench and door is reminiscent of a mausoleum, and the insects hum in the background sounds like
a lazy dirge. The cacti are sparse here, and the ambiance
more relaxed.
South, at the border, the Shadow landscape takes
a different form. Plants droop and the sky dims to gray,
despite the always-clear daytime. Within three miles of
the border itself, there is no reflection of the bountiful life
in the physical world. Flat, featureless desert displays no
characteristic marks to a visitor. Even the insignificant
river that shares the border between Arizona and Mexico
for a short five miles is absent. The place feels as desolate
as it looks, and a werewolf might recognize it as a shoal.
Shoals are common along the border in this territory,
and dark spirits watch from their depths, miserable or
ambitious, waiting for their opportunity to lash out at the
joyful part of the world. Interspersed between the shoals
are worse places, places that emanate feelings of horrible
fear and loss.
Returning to the physical world, the war-howls of
werewolves under Rage echo over the park nightly. Border
Patrol agents die regularly, shot by smugglers or (more
often) torn apart by the angry Uratha that the territorys
pack can smell on the winds every night. Forsaken and
Pure, not from this territory, fight on the southern border
at least every week; the pack that claims the territory may
not always see them, but they leave their scents behind.
Paranoid Pure Tribes to the north of the territory make
regular raids on the Forsaken pack living here, acting to
prevent the potential blood contamination that letting
the Forsaken packmembers breed might cause. Other
Forsaken, seeing the dangers of letting the territory run its
own course, try to drive even other Forsaken tribes away,
believing that only their own guidance can correct the
places troubles.
Evidence of war is everywhere, if one only looks in
the right place.

129

In

the

E yes

of

M an

The United States-Mexico border causes only trouble

for the National Monument. Citizens of a half-dozen
countries across the world use the border to enter the
United States illegally, and the Monuments qualities
make it a good choice for the attempt. The National
Monument is not nearly as busy as Tijuana or Nogales,
where the thousands of potential illegal entries keep the
Border Patrol busy. Only the small town of Sonoyta has a
significant population on the Mexican side of the border.
Unlike Tijuana and Nogales, Sonoyta doesnt sit on the
border itself; the town isnt more than a two-mile drive to
the border checkpoint, but the fact that people hoping to
emigrate cant look 100 feet into the United States makes
a big difference.
But Sonoyta isnt the problem. The problem is the
drug runners and coyotes (slang for people-smugglers)
who discovered the lax security around the Organ Pipe
Cactus National Monument some decades ago. Theyve
been taking advantage of the area since, and the Border
Patrol has met that activity with a corresponding amount
of attention. Today, the Patrol sends a couple cars past
each day to watch for undocumented entries, and there
are two or three agents observing several trouble spots
every night. Barely a day goes by that the agents dont
catch and process three to 10 people usually Mexican,
but occasionally of other nationalities trying to become
illegal aliens in the United States. Coyotes are harder
to catch, but the Patrol still captures at least three in an
average week. No one believes the drug smugglers are
more rare than the people smugglers, but the Border Patrol
still finds only one or two a week, and arrests are even less
common. Shootouts occur as often as every other week,
whenever the smugglers are truly desperate enough to risk
the greater penalties and the physical harm.

M ore

on

Illegal Immigration

Immigration into the United States via the

Mexican border is an oft-discussed subject with
a great deal of complexity. Some people believe
Mexico is scheming to reclaim California and
Texas and others just worry about the effects of
NAFTA and other border policies on the United
States economy. For more information, some of
which is clearly biased, check out these resources:
The Gatekeepers, film
The Silent Invasion, book, Scott Gulbransen
Dying to Cross, book, Jorge Ramos
United States of America: Humans Rights
Concerns in the Border Region with Mexico,
report, Amnesty International

Tensions run high on both sides of the border. To

the south, hundreds of immigrants a month stop briefly
at Sonoyta, hoping to find a new life in America but
afraid of getting caught by the Border Patrol. They are
unsure of what will happen if they are caught, especially
after hearing horror stories about beatings, murders and
rape, but they are also uncertain of what to do if they get
through successfully. Coyotes are bitter; the prices they
demand are very good for a nights work, especially in
Mexico, but all are aware that the risks they take could
land them in a bad prison. And every coyote knows a
colleague or two who have disappeared or, worse, been
shot or beaten on the job. What are vague nightmares to
hopeful immigrants are solid consequences to the coyotes.
Drug smugglers have two sources of fear: the Border Patrol
and any consequences they represent and the quiet, strong
concerns for which the smugglers are working. Getting
caught on the job is a good way to get beaten by the Patrol
and then beaten or killed by ones employers, and refusing
to cross is a better way to earn that employers wrath.
North of the border, Border Patrol agents share some
of the same fears. Will tonight be the night I get shot by a
smuggler? But many of them feel anger as well. They resent
the illegals whose activities force the Patrol to be vigilant
and, occasionally, take an American life. Furthermore,
some Americans believe that there is a directed movement in Mexico to infiltrate the southwest United States
with immigrants, slowly returning the region to Mexicos
control. The more conspiracy-minded believe that the
Mexican government is acting in concert with other
enemies of the United States, such as North Korea and
China. Disproportionate numbers of these people manage
to get positions within the Border Patrol. Because they feel
more strongly about it, more of them apply, and superior
officers who would prefer an agent be unbiased are unable
to weed them all out.
All this fear and hatred pushes the people who meet
at the border beyond their normal limits. Consciences and
morals are forgotten as rage takes over, giving rise to the
too-many dangerous incidents at the border. Drug runners,
driven by fear of reprisal, gun down Border Patrol agents.
Frustrated by their resentment and feelings of impotence,
agents of the Patrol abuse captured illegal immigrants with
beatings, withheld sustenance, ridicule and rape. Members
of American protection civilian patriots clubs perform
their own patrols outside the scope of the law, paranoia
and anger fueling their efforts to discourage immigration.
Sociopaths are no more common among Mexican
smugglers and paranoid Americans than they are in the
rest of society. No normal man can torture, utterly humiliate or kill another human being without feeling guilt and
struggling with the act, however justified it felt at the time.
The players in this drama leave a great deal of guilt behind them in the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument,
though more follows them home.

War Zone: The Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

East of the National Monument, sharing its eastern
border, lies the significantly larger Tohono Oodham
Indian Reservation. One of the largest reservations in the
American southwest, the ancestral lands of the Tohono
Oodham (Papago) people are recognized by both the
United States and Mexico. The treaty that mentions
this also specifically allows Oodham Indians to cross the
international border for the purpose of their traditional
ceremonies and celebrations. Unfortunately, this simple
statement has triggered misunderstandings and resentment.
Agents of the Border Patrol, trying to do their duty in
a difficult and dangerous situation, have made the mistake
of apprehending members of the Papago tribes as they try
to return to the United States. With no special identification to indicate their heritage and since many members
of the tribe are no more than one-fourth or one-eighth
Oodham the protestations of the wrongly imprisoned
meet little more than ridicule and the usual assortment of
maltreatments.
After many years of such poor treatment, the Tohono
Oodham are no longer willing to stand by while their
rights are ignored and they are abused. Some of them,
mostly small groups of younger tribe members, are angry
and just looking for an opportunity to fight back. Groups
of such youths sometimes stalk through the night, looking
for an excuse to loose their rage on a hapless Patrol agent.
They rarely do more than brandish a knife and throw
some stones, but Patrol agents are under orders not to
offend the politically powerful Tohono. Even so, the conflicts slowly escalate, and some young Papago are flaunting
guns.

Werewolves
However beautifully cactus blooms rise to the sky,
they cannot conceal the chaos in the territory. Every pack
of the Forsaken Tribes recognizes that the region is trouble
and needs help. Nightmares bleed into the Hisil around
the territory. Spirits of fear congregate beneath the border
and spread out into the National Monument to the north
and Sonoyta to the south. Anger- and hate-spirits are not
as ubiquitous as those of fear, but are all too familiar to the
local Uratha.
Pure Tribes keep out of the Pipe Cactus territory for
the same reason that the Forsaken need to take it. The
spirits have had their own run for a long time, and they
dont want any interference from the People. Pure packs,
with their different perspective on the Shadow Realm
and its inhabitants, leave it to the spirits as part of their
diplomacy. The Forsaken cannot afford to let the spirits
continue unhindered, especially as their war is beginning
to cause casualties in the spirit world.
When a Forsaken pack moves into the Organ Pipe
Cactus National Monument, the spirits ignore the pack
until the werewolves act against the spirits interests.
Thats when all hell breaks loose. Aid comes in the form

130

of angry Pure, responding to requests from their spirit allies. Each day, more blood spills than the last, as Predator
Kings slay humans to complicate their foes lives and FireTouched launch vicious, visible attacks at every opportunity to scare the damnable Forsaken.
There is much to do.
Loci need to be controlled by the Forsaken; doing
so will limit the strength of the warring spirit courts and
reduce the size of the conflict. Of course, the spirits guard
their loci with as much strength as they can muster. Even
if they cant take the loci, the werewolves have a duty
to repair the devastation being caused by the war and
prevent more. Stopping the war is a very complex political
action, and unless the loci are permanently removed from
the spirits grasps, hostilities will eventually return.
In the south, a great spirit of flame chaotically ruins
everything it touches. The pack must learn the spirits
intentions and whether they can treat with it or it must be
put down. Other spirit courts there are not involved in the
war; if they are waiting to scavenger land and loci from
the weakened victors, things will only go downhill if the
war continues.
The southern loci, which fuel guilt and fear, reinforce themselves on the border. Not only must they be
destroyed an act sure to enrage many but the pack
must change the border conditions, or else the loci will
return. Though immigration is a longer-term concern, the
pack will eventually have to take a stance on immigration,
the Border Patrol and how to handle them. Whatever
choice the packmembers make will surely earn them some
enemies.
Pure Tribes wont stop harrying the territory without
cause. Forsaken may try to cut a deal with spirit courts in
the Pures territories, but it takes a great bargain or a lot of
wheedling to get most spirits to go against the Pure. Less
complicated is fighting the Pure directly and forcing them
to respect the packs strength but it may well be more
difficult, if not impossible. The local Pure are old and
mighty, and defeating them directly may be more trouble
than a new pack of Forsaken can handle.
Some Immigration Options
Any pack trying to claim the Pipe Cactus territory
eventually concerns itself with the immigration problem.
Some packs want to eliminate it completely, thus depriving the negative loci near the border of their source. Eventually, such an act would make it easier for the Forsaken to
curb those loci and eliminate them completely. Another
pack might encourage immigration, wanting to claim the
loci. After chasing off the many spirits that sip of the loci
daily, the werewolves would have immense power at their
disposal. For whatever purpose, a pack needs to shape the
regions immigration even as the packmembers deal with
nightly raids from the Pure and a Shadow war.
To do so, the werewolves must make an effort to manipulate both the local Border Patrol and the immigration
and drug efforts on the other side of the border. Making

131
the Border Patrol do what one wants might be as low-key
as becoming known to the locals and buying the agent a
doughnut while ones pack helps a Mexican family across
the border (or tears them to shreds and buries them). On
the other hand, it could be as intricate as giving the Patrol
valuable tip-offs on enough occasions to gain the agents
trust while simultaneously befriending the local anti-immigrant league and playing the two against each other
to achieve ones goals. In the long term, the pack can try
to influence locals to different ways of thinking, but few
locals actually live within the Pipe Cactus territory; other
werewolves, many Pure, would take fatal offense at any
such attempt.
Affecting the drug smugglers and coyotes requires
a different effort. Integrating with humans outside the
packs territory is hard, so the packmembers must instead
create consequences that forge the proper actions. One
potential tactic would be to close the border. A vigilant
pack could locate and rebuff (or kill) every drug mule and
immigrant smuggler who tries to enter the United States.
After a few months to a year, the National Monument
would acquire such a deadly reputation that the number
of people who tried to cross would drop immeasurably. In
turn, that would reduce the tension and soften the feelings of the Border Patrol, weakening the pools of negative
emotion and Essence.
Alternately, the pack can facilitate crossing, helping
the Mexicans evade capture. If no immigrants ever die or
fail, the regions reputation changes. First, without deaths
or frightening, hate-filled encounters, support for the pain
loci is reduced. Second, the region acquires a more positive reputation on the other side of the border, and illegals
no longer approach the journey with such nervousness.
Patrol agents may begin spreading other emotions around,
but embarrassment and shame arent as dangerous as murderous rage and guilt.
Keep in mind as players consider these options that
the Pure dont stop attacking and Shadow wars dont cease
just because the Forsaken are being humanitarian. If
anything, the Pure and the spirits take the opportunity to
ratchet the threat upwards.

Z ounds!
Ithaeur who investigate the territorys border may question what made the many negative
incidents there form loci instead of Wounds.
A close examination of the mystery can reveal
interesting story hooks:
A spirit wise in the way of pain and misery
shaped the emotions into wellsprings of Essence
instead of tears in the Hisil. Strangely, he is not
reaping the benefit of his work. Why not?
The geomantic placement of the nearby
loci (the Organ Pipe loci and the Visitor Center)
caused the layered negative Essence to erupt

outward instead of collapse inwards. If this arrangement can be studied and duplicated, future
Wounds could be prevented.
Each negative locus is founded on the body
of a Spider Host. The entity is barely alive, but is
sustained by an unknown force. What ritual did
this? Will killing the Host bring the locus crashing
down to become a Wound? And why is an Azlu
tied to the creation of a locus, of all things?
Wounds begin as loci. Only after it becomes
too powerful for the negative Essence to
continue pouring into the physical realm does
a negative-energy locus turn into a Wound
almost as stars become black holes. These loci
did not reach that level of strength before spirits
found them and began to drain the locis power.
But are they still gaining strength?

M oving

the Border
You can easily transport this territory to any place in
the world where sensitive conditions cause emotions to
run hot amidst dangerously escalating conflicts. Borders
are unnecessary, though they help to focus the ideologies.
Israel is an ideal choice. China and some of the nations
that broke away from the Soviet Union may also still have
quite tumultuous borders that may invoke a great deal
of tension among those nearby. Africa could play host
to any number of high-tension borders, or even outright
wars. Changing the names of the nations and locations
on either side of the border is easy. Any of these can be
good places to relocate the National Monument and its
troubles.
The characters in this section have mindsets and
motivations easy to translate. The Border Patrol agent
with a smoldering anger at the Mexicans becomes an
Israeli soldier whose siblings died in a Palestinian bombing or a Central African Republic border guard with a
grudge against the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The vicious nationalist, instead of organizing a hate group
against immigrants, discriminates against his nations
neighbors. The smuggler knows how to cross into or out of
Uzbekistan without getting caught.
Supernatural dangers are likewise flexible. The
natural spirit lord has a mysterious backer; his Influence
may be based in local plant life, but he may be a sandspirit in Israel or a spirit of great apes in Africa, and his
spirit war is just as dangerous in China as it is in Arizona.
The Ivory Claw pack is still obsessed with the purity of its
bloodline, but the outside race is different. The Predator
Kings represent a local human tribe, present in the region
since time immemorial but still deprived of some ancient
or otherwise forgotten rights. The array of fear and hate
loci still mark the territorys border, and the dangers that
accompany them as well.

War Zone: The Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

W hy D o They Want I t ?
(Feat ures and A dvantages)

The Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument may

have its good points. Beautiful land with rare plants and
the spirits that want them to grow. Three usable, if not
strong, loci that dont harm their surroundings. Decent
desert hunting, especially in the wildlife refuge to the
west, even if it is mostly small game. But really, with the
strongly structured and resistant spirit courts monopolizing the loci and the Hisil, and the utter blight that covers
the southern border and is growing almost quickly enough
to see, why would any werewolf want to claim this territory?
Prestige. The Forsaken pack that tames this wilderness, forsaken in its own way despite its beauty, will earn
Renown enough to earn the packs place in the songs and
howls of generations to come. Such a pack will possess the
respect of every Forsaken within one, maybe 200 miles,
because the Pipe Cactus disaster area is well known to local Uratha. Even if young, the pack that bests the Monument will become a sort of instant elder. Other werewolves
will ask of the packmembers advice, and boons, and fear
them. At least, that is what ambitious werewolves tell
themselves.
Duty. Even if the packmembers are unable to fix the
territorys many problems, a pack of the Forsaken Tribes
may be able to keep the area, and its many evil loci, out
of Pure hands. The Pure have fewer compunctions about
using the hate- and pain-tainted Essence that comes from
the southern loci. Pure werewolves are happy to use any
source of power to help them destroy their brethren who
forsook Father Wolf so long ago. Some, Predator Kings
especially, are even sickeningly pleased to use the suffering
of the human prey as a weapon against the hated Forsaken. The better relationship that Pure have with the worlds
spirits helps them make use of the negative loci without
having to drive off the flocks of entities clamoring to feed
from them. For this reason alone, holding the Pipe Cactus
territory is a worthy effort for the Forsaken, even if they
are doing so only by the skin of their claws.
Power. Some Forsaken dont care about the pain
that the humans suffer to create the southern loci, seeing
them only as potential sources of great power. Pure Tribes
are all around the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, and using every weapon available to crush them is
a fitting aim. Such packs only make the effort to secure
their access to the territorys more powerful loci, those
around the border. These packs cajole and bribe spirits for
a turn at one fountain, and they destroy entire fiefdoms
to clear another for their use. And after they grow drunk
and strong on Essence, they take the battle to the enemy
in the nearby Pure territories. This is precisely the reason
that the Pure want the territory, and while no Forsaken
werewolf completely forgets that fact, many submerge the
thought while performing the same abuses that the Pure

132

would. Over time, a pack that draws its strength from

these loci finds itself more bloodthirsty and less inhibited,
more willing to cut down a human when it doesnt need
the human alive. Werewolves might begin to sympathize
with the ideologies that fed the loci from which they
drank most begin to feel the urge for security and
freedom (which encourages them to destroy the foul loci
that endanger and bind them), but some may begin to feel
more protective of their territory, paranoid about everyone
who enters it or any other relevant emotion. Uratha so
affected feel as if they arrive at the belief naturally and
logically, though people who know them well might notice
that its an abnormal change.
Personal reasons. An Elodoth from southern Arizona
could easily carry over her sense of balance to preventing
incursions on the border, and, over time, such peripheral
efforts may grow into a passion for the werewolf. Werewolves who grow up south of the border may have lost
relatives to the borders violence, and Uratha from the
north may still feel a nationalism from their days as a
preChange American.
There are no real most common tribes that try to
occupy the Monument. Only the Iron Masters avoid it.
After all, there is a reason that immigrants choose to
cross there and the Patrol agents feel the way they do.
And most Iron Masters believe that they must honor those
reasons, which prevents them from addressing most of the
ailments that plague the territory. Such an interpretation
of the tribes credo is not universal, of course, so some Iron
Masters packs may be attracted to the region in order to
better the human condition. They choose to honor their
territory by making it a less foul place for the Mexican to
immigrate and the Patrol to guard.
Among the other tribes, there is a motivation for
each to take the territory as its own. Storm Lords who
learn of the park see it as a great challenge. Leaving it to
the Pure would be a fatal error, and letting another pack
brave its dangers would be like admitting that the Storm
Lords cannot do it. It would be weakness, pure and simple,
so Storm Lords packs have their eyes on the territory.
Storm Lords would be among the most likely to abuse
the negative loci as a source of pure power. Hunters in
Darkness see it another way. The humans, in a rare show
of wisdom, saw fit to recognize the importance and primal
beauty of the region, with its cacti and natural desert.
It doesnt hurt that, as a national park, the Pipe Cactus
territory is mostly off-limits to the various human activities that often plague werewolf packs; the Hunters even
recognize that the Predator Kings likely prize the area for
the same reasons. But their arbitrary national borders have
given rise to such damage that the area itself may never
recover. It is the cactus loci that the Hunters in Darkness
wish to defend, with everything that entails.
The Bone Shadows recognize the ubiquity of spirit
courts in the region. Should they meet no resistance in
their attempts to completely rule an area of such impor-

133
tance, the shadow entities would surely gloat over their
success and spread. The Forsaken cannot allow such
behavior to go unpunished, and Bone Shadows are the
ones to do it. Blood Talons, on the other hand, are often
just looking for a good fight. And for any Talons from the
Sonoran Desert, the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument is the front line. If they go there and earn glory, it is
good. If they fall defending the ways of the Forsaken from
encroaching spirits and the Pure, so be it. Blood Talons,
like the Storm Lords, may be willing to use the fear and
hate loci as a source of strength.

Taking (and H olding)

the Territory

Playing Werewolf set in this (or a similar) territory

can begin either with the pack already in control of the
region or about to take it. The former is easier the
game can begin with the assumption that the Forsaken
pack made a clever and brave attack on the pack that held
it before, driving the pack out, or that the Forsaken pack
surprised those packs that had absorbed the territory into
their own territories with their claim and their surprising
ability to defend it.
Starting before the pack takes the Pipe Cactus territory, on the other hand, requires the players to have a
compelling reason to take on the responsibility. Beginning
with the territory makes it their responsibility, gives them
an obligation; before that point, the players could always
back away.
In this situation, having one pack claiming the
region as an add-on to the packs main range is easiest;
with a reasonable show of force, the Forsaken pack could
convince the other werewolves that its too costly to keep.
If many different packs have all claimed chunks of the territory, the effort to take it becomes more political. A rare
young pack that could take multiple packs on in combat
and force them all to retract their borders is rare.
Either way the game starts, the territorys new protectors have a lot to do. The packs members must be able
to protect the many loci in the territory, tame the spirit
wilds, effectively control illegal immigration as their ethics
demand and defend the location itself against the Forsaken and Pure who want it. Others consider failing in any
one of these categories evidence that the dominant pack
is incapable of holding the territory, proof that the pack
should be ousted.
Each criterion is itself fraught with complications.
Keeping a single locus safe from the unwanted attentions
of mischievous spirits, the Pure Tribes and any unfamiliar Forsaken is hard. Spirits approach through the Hisil,
drawn to the locus, hoping to drink deep of its Essence
and gain the power they desire. Some spirits work together
to occupy a locus and keep it safe from werewolves, hiding
amidst the resonance and ambushing the Forsaken after
luring one or more close. Even if the pack sacrifices the

spirit side of the locus to the spirits abandonment of

duty, to be sure the pack will still have to guard the
locus as a point of entry for angry, ambitious spirits to
cross over. Protecting the locus against werewolves is more
difficult. They may assault the point from within the spirit
or physical worlds, and they have myriad Gifts at their
disposal. Any stealth they use is theirs, and not that of the
locus, but employing stealth means that they are probably
skilled at it.
If the pack can do all of that, it must then be able to
protect the locus with less than a few hours dedication a
day. The werewolves other responsibilities, including the
protection of other loci in the territory, cannot be ignored.
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monuments spirit wilds
would scare city wolves if they werent prepared for the
sight. As part of the Sonoran desert where few have lived
since ever, there were rarely enough Uratha nearby
to effectively tame the spirit world. Until today, in any
case, and today the People are too busy trying to stop the
rampant afflictions on the territory to pay too much attention to any but the most dangerous and infectious shadow
parks or foul spirits.
Lords of the Monuments spirit world have gone too
long without any effective interdiction from the Uratha
to stand for it now. While the spirit lords wouldnt mind
seeing the shoals cleaned up from the southern border,
since that sort of miserable resonance only brings unsavory spirits, the spirit lords will fight to the last for the
loci they consider theirs. Any dealings with minor spirits
in the territory will eventually draw the attention of the
spirit lords here, who have become all the more wary since
werewolves started paying attention to the area.
And there are deadly traps around the border for any
creature, werewolf or not, who dares to approach them.
Powerful loci of fear, suspicion, hate and pain have sprung
up there, birthed from the hundreds of emotion-ridden
altercations between people from either side of the border
or, occasionally, the same side. Isolated from the attention
of man and spirit for so long, the escalation of the problems over the last few decades escaped unnoticed for many
years, which gave the Essence plenty of time to solidify
into powerful founts of negative Essence. Once spirits with
tastes for that resonance discovered the loci, they began to
draw from them and the loci ceased growing in power.

Wh y

Park?

Why is the great disaster area of the United

States-Mexico border in a national park? Why
not Nogales or San Luis, Colorado? While those
large cities are indeed the location of many, many
more illegal crossings into the United States than
the 3 0-mile border of the Pipe Cactus territory,
they also have many other things going on. Sitting right on the border, Mexicans live, work,

War Zone: The Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

celebrate and die there, and many thousands of
them do not try to enter America. Every emotion
known to man expresses itself there, where cities
meet the border.
People near the border of the National
Monument, with the nearest city is at least
five miles away, are either crossing illegally
or patrolling to stop it. That is when they feel
their fear and resentment the most, and there
is nothing else to cancel the feelings out. So the
emotions drip into the spirit world, pool and
fester.

Sample
Personae

Few people live within the Organ Pipe Cactus

National Monuments
borders. Only the towns
of Lukeville and Quitovaquita are officially
there, and both have
fewer than 20 inhabitants. But there are several
people who pass through it
regularly or somehow have
influence on the area.

Lucas Gemelo,
Border Patrol
Agent
A Quitovaquita
native, Lucas Gemelo
was only seven when
his Uncle Job, a Border
Patrol agent, had the bad
luck to catch a bullet in
his leg. The round shattered a bone, and the local doctor was neither skilled enough to fix it nor wise enough
to send the patient to a better doctor. When the bone
healed poorly and Job Gemelo realized that he would be
crippled for the rest of his life, he turned down a desk job
to resign from the Patrol, too overcome with self-disgust
and humiliation. Without any other relatives, there was
nothing for Job to do but move in with his sister Anita,
Lucas mother.
At his uncles knee, Lucas learned the dangers of
living so near the border. Desperate immigrants would
kill to enter America illegally so that they could earn
more money than they needed to survive in Mexico. Drug
smugglers would kill anyone who got in the way of their
foul trade and then sell their Mexican diseases-in-a-bag
to anyone with two dimes to rub together. It was, Job insisted, one of these who shot him in the leg and effectively

134

killed him. He lamented that he would never be able to

put away another illegal immigrant or kill another piece
of drug-running scum. Job ignored that the Patrol shipped
illegal aliens back into Mexico for another chance after
a week or so and that hed never actually shot at a smuggler, even on the night one shot him. With all this, Job
instilled in Lucas a hatred for the Mexicans who tried to
cross the border, and his uncles eventual suicide only anchored it at the center of Lucas psyche. On the day when
he was sworn in as a Border Patrol agent, it was his fervent
belief that his uncle would be proud.
Lucas is five-foot-nine with short, dark brown hair
and brown eyes. Third-generation American, he still
shares the genetically tanned skin of his Mexican ancestors. When on the job,
22-year-old Lucas is all
business, and when
talking to immigrants
in his eyes, anyone
of Mexican descent
who cant speak good
English, at least until he
knows differently he
is rudely brief. With his
friends, though, Lucas
is animated. He enjoys
discussing sports and
going out with his friends
to shoot empty beer cans
while emptying more.
Under the influence,
Lucas becomes more
and more likely to
start making disparaging
remarks against Mexicans
and immigrants.
Lucas patrols the
National Monument
once each evening
and takes night watches
three times a week. He is unnecessarily rough with illegals
whom he catches, and he has already received a few reprimands for discharging his weapon without cause. This
only makes him sullen, since he was trying to put the fear
of God into the damn immigrants.

E duardo Vasconcelos, Smuggler

Eduardo has lived all his life in Sonoyta and, despite
the fact that he crosses the border illegally several times a
month, he doesnt mean to ever leave. All his family, from
his toothless grandfather to his two-year-old daughter and
his three nieces and nephews, are in Sonoyta. Because of
his trade, he and his wife always have enough to live on
and, when necessary, to let his family borrow a little. After
seven years of ferrying anxious, hopeful Mexicans across
the border for what is usually the last of their savings, the
mouse is beginning to feel the pangs of guilt over his cho-

135
sen profession. Is it his fault that his childhood meanderings gave him such extensive knowledge of the area that
he can avoid any American patrol? Still, Eduardo is beginning to consider retiring from his nighttime profession on
his handsome nest egg. He could devote himself in full
to being a mechanic in his fathers garage, and he would
probably inherit it in a few years. It doesnt help that his
wife cant sleep for worry on nights when hes out.
Short and slim, Eduardos build lends itself equally
to creeping silently across the dusty ground and snaking
between a series of tractor parts to find and replace the
problem. Of his two professions, however, el ratn is much
better at the one that has earned him his nice nest egg.
Out with his friends, Vasconcelos is a rascal. He loves
practical jokes and gags, playing them on his comrades
whenever he can. He plays them on his wife and kids, too,
but with a great deal more restraint. After all, he has to
live with them.
Even before he started doing it for money, Eduardo
loved to cross the border as a game with the Patrol, running back across if they ever pursued him. If he quit now,
at 34, he might be able to content himself with long hikes
across the desert, but he isnt sure. Neither is he eager to
find out.

R andall Kubert,
Righ teous Nat ionalist
Randall J. Kubert, son of Robert Kubert, drank in
American supremacy and disdain with his mothers milk.
His father was a peripheral member of the Ku Klux Klan
not for whites, per se, but for True Americans in
northern Texas before the family moved west to Arizona
over some local scandal. Only three when the family
moved, Randall soon picked up the lingo and the ideology
from his father. At that rate, it was only a matter of time
before Randall started to express it.
Ajo High School, age 16. So upset about the special
treatment the school gave to the Mexicans, even those
who werent citizens, he brought a gun to school and
threatened one of the Mexican clique leaders. During his
suspension, his father told Randall something that stayed
with him forever, The spics aint going to play by the
rules or on top of the table, son. If you do, youll just make
it easier for them. Taking his lesson to heart, Randall got
himself on the student body council. Few people knew it,
but he was the one making homecoming and prom hell for
the Mexican students, with a few well-placed suggestions
and simple decoration choices.
Now in his early 40s, Randall Kubert owns a local
construction company and grouses about his beer gut in
Ajo, Arizona, a short 30 miles from the border. His father
died of a heart attack at 60, and though Randall knows he
should watch his diet, he can never stop himself from eating what he wants. Losing some of his dirty blond hair on
top and fearing a double chin, he does his best to ignore

his physical failings while he runs his company, drinks and

watches football with his pals.
Fifteen years ago, Randall founded a quiet organization that he and his patriots call Americas Protection
Society. They subtly track ways in which the Mexicans are
weakening Americas economic capability and suborning
her infrastructure. Gathering evidence of their southern
neighbors wrongdoing, they will someday do something. They may tell authorities, publish a book or film an
expos, but they arent really sure. Mostly, the patriots
of Americas Protection Society sit around in the bar that
one of them owns and complain about Mexicans in their
town. Sometimes, the patriots drive down to the border
at night and try to scare illegals back into their own damn
country. Still, Randall dreams of doing more, and hes
made some contacts. He knows people in similar clubs in
Arizona, and he has some sympathetic friends within the
Border Patrol, Lucas Gemelo among them.

M anny Gonzles, Janitor

Manny (Manuel) is just a regular fellow who lives in
Why, Arizona, and earns a few extra bucks driving into
the National Monument three times a week to clean the
Visitor Center. Except that its not all normal. For several
years, sure, it felt like any other set of bathrooms. Swab
the floor, scrub the toilets once a week, change out the
urinal cakes when necessary. But after a while, Manny
began to feel what was different. It was something about
history, something about respect. Something about death.
Manny started bringing the obits from the local paper and
pinning them up on the bulletin board beside fire warnings and important local phone numbers. It felt right.
After a few months, he began to collect all the obits he
could and pin them there, and when his Aunt Juana died,
he got permission to set up a small shrine in the Center, if
only for a week. That felt right, too.
He may not know what it is, but he knows theres
something unnatural about it. But even Manny is a devout
Roman Catholic, that doesnt bother Manny. He can feel
it, and something about it feels respectful of the dead.
Tinged with sadness, but good. Manny is older now, a bit
past 40, and his kids are ready to take care of him. But
Manny refuses to give up the janitorial position in the
park. It needs him he once fought off a defiling punk
with no more than his mop and, a little bit, he needs it.
It makes him feel like theres still good out there.

E xpanding

the

Territory

On one side of it, the Organ Pipe Cactus National

Monument territory would appear easy to stretch outward.
There are no significant natural borders that provide an
easy demarcation for werewolves to notice. All a pack
would need do to expand the Pipe Cactus territory is
enlarge the range of where its members hunt and mark,
and when they came into conflict with another pack they
could fight or cease expanding.

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Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

It isnt that easy. Not only are many of the nearby
territories already strongly held by other werewolf packs,
Pure and Forsaken both, but all of those packs watch the
Pipe Cactus territory carefully. Anyone who would take or
hold it earns her neighbors attention. The nearby Tohono
Oodham Indian Reservation contains several Pure packs
who identify with the Papago. Full of hatred for the nation
that defiled the Tohonos once-pure ways, the Pure make
absolutely certain that no pack holding the Monument
may expand in the Tohonos direction. The Pure also
watch the packs stance on immigration and interaction
with the Border Patrol, letting that guide them. Pure
Tribes also occupy America, to the territorys north, and
the wildlife refuge to the west. Ivory Claws and FireTouched occupy the town of Ajo, and the Predator Kings
rule the wildlife refuge and the uninhabited regions between southern Arizonas towns. Expanding the territory
in either of these directions requires a furious war against
werewolves who hate the pack, have shown a disturbing
amount of cooperation in the past and already launch
raids against the Monument often. The pack that could
successfully hold the Pipe Cactus territory while striking
out against the Pure Tribes would be mighty indeed.
Across the border in Mexico, three Forsaken packs
hold the small city of Sonoyta against the encroaching
Pure. Only the packs great understanding of the land has
let them hold on despite the Pures best attempts to flush
the packs out and kill them. But a pack holding the Organ
Pipe Cactus National Monument could change that.
Forsaken in the Pipe Cactus territory would most certainly
draw the ire of all the surrounding Pure, and the packs of
Sonoyta might get washed away in the subsequent storm.
These Forsaken believe that the territory cannot be held
and that a pack that tries to swallow land south of the
border will only open itself to attack by the Pure. For this
reason, and the normal territorial concerns, these packs
fight any attempt for a southward expansion.

On All Sides
(Potent ial Threat s)
King Spine, Spirit Lord
Blunt Spine was the first name he remembers hearing
applied to him. His were the thin needles of the cactus,
those that were not yet completely formed or had failed
to grow correctly and so were too soft to puncture skin.
He could not protect the cactus. Blunt Spine was the
epitome of useless matter, a waste, and it rankled him. So,
he decided, if he were too weak and useless to defend the
cactus, he would betray it instead.
Today, Blunt Spine has become King Spine. He
passed through four other incarnations to get there (Little
Spine, Tallest Spine, Great Spine and Strong Spine)
before he destroyed the lords popularity with both its liege
and its followers to take the office of King Spine, ruler
of the local court. King Spine keeps his court in line by

136

playing them against each other. He creates additional positions and appointments at whim so that the lesser spirits
can fight for them, allowing them to waste their energy on
each other instead of on him. He enjoys watching their
squabbling, especially when they conceive new reasons to
fight without his artifice.
The spirit lord rarely takes on any anthropomorphic
aspect. Though he refers to himself as male, King Spine
rarely appears as anything other than an acre-wide mass of
prickly pear cactus plants surrounding a shadowed organ
pipe cactus that blocks out the spirit-sun no matter where
one stands. In order to approach him, members of his
court must tread through 30 yards of spine-ridden cacti;
the favor in which King Spine holds one directly influences how painful that approach is. When he must appear
as a man, King Spine takes the form of a regally dressed,
shapely man of unnaturally perfect symmetry, the only
indication of his affinity the hair of cactus spines brushed
elegantly back on his head.
His subjects, when certain of their privacy, oftentimes
share rumors that he has an unknown benefactor. Some
remember their liege from when he was the weakest of
spirits, and they recall that he spent much time away from
the court consorting with unknown creatures. They whisper that he might owe his meteoric rise to those spirits, or
their master. When might he pay that debt, and how do
those unknowns still influence the court lords actions?
Envoys from fire and sun courts have noticed King Spines
slight on Helios, and some of his subjects believe he may
have support from someone powerful enough to deflect
any real retribution from that source.
King Spine rules one of the two cactus loci strictly.
Though it feels awkward to his subjects, there are seven
books of law governing the locus regulation. They are all
presumably penned by the King on stone and stored in
a small, dark cavern beneath the spiritual cactus fields;
King Spine uses them to ensure that none but he and
his favorites in court can access the Essence at will. King
Spine wants to add the other locus to his domain, but
the spirits that frequent it have refused his invitations to
become subjects and resisted his initial attempts at forcing
their subjugation.
For that reason, King Spine began a spirit war. His
subjects dig trenches in the spirit world and launch assaults at whomever holds the other locus, and every day
more spirits fail to reform after destruction. Any spirit
whose Influence could affect the outcome has been
wheedled toward one side or another, or press-ganged if
they are weak enough. The number of spirits involved
escalates daily, despite the deaths. For the time being,
the devastation is still contained in the region between
the two cactus loci, though it will not be long before the
entire territory (and beyond) is embroiled within the
Shadow war.
Forsaken who have just taken the territory find the
spirit population surprisingly active; the Forsaken dont

137
take long to realize they straddle a war in the Hisil. The
battles are devastating to the local shadow landscape.
They eventually spill over into the physical realm, as
spirits do battle through human and animal hosts and the
spirits deaths change the resonance and make the region
less fertile; the spirits may even drain the beneficial cactus
loci to the dregs in an effort to win their control. Mitigating this disaster without appearing vulnerable to the
nearby Pure is necessary to prevent a complete desolation
that might drain the vitality of life in the Monument or
even create Barrens in the territory.
Allying with King Spine (secretly, of course) to help
him take the other locus would earn the Forsaken his
friendship, and the King would probably agree to help
rejuvenate the spirit world after the war. But King Spine
would not respect the werewolves, thinking them easy
marks, unless they drove a hard bargain. And if they
betrayed him, finding a way to slip control of both loci out
of his grasp, the King would be sure to swear revenge. His
cactus court would hide among the territorys spirit wilds
and strike out at the pack whenever possible. Denying
the Kings subjects permission to enter the physical world
through their locus is another good way to attract King
Spines ire and bring the force of a court already armed for
war into the werewolves physical territory.
Rank: 3
Attributes: Power 8; Finesse 9; Resistance 5
Willpower: 1 3
Essence: 1 5 ( 20 max)
Initiative: 1 4
Defense: 9
Speed: 1 7
Size: 8
Corpus: 1 3
Influences: Plants , Law
Numina: Blast (Cactus Spines), Chorus, Discorporation,
Materialize, Material Vision, Plant Growth*, Reaching,
Sense Weakness*, Wilds Sense
Ban: Unknown
*As the Gift; King Spine can also teach the appropriate
Gift.

Blessed -by-Ice, Ivory Claws Pack

Living in Ajo, north of the Pipe Cactus territory,
Blessed-by-Ice takes its name from the heat of Arizona.
These packmembers are the purest of the Pure, blessed by
their heritage to carry and pass on the most sacred bloodlines, and they are as rare as they are great as rare as ice
in an Arizona summer.
The pack, like most, has its own feelings on the
nature of humanity and the people around them. Aaron,
William, Jonathon and Sarah Masters are all from the
same extended litter; they are cousins who share descent
from a Pure great-grandfather and share the same traits:
straight brown hair, blue eyes and a fair, freckled complex-

ion. Their blood is a rare and precious thing, and the Masters claim that their ancestors have been sowing it in this
region since the fall of Father Wolf. Humans who share
this blood (and there are many) but are not worthy of the
First Change are not pure enough, but they make good
breeding stock. Blessed-by-Ice plays subtle games with the
townsfolk of Ajo, manipulating whom loves whom, even
getting an unlikely couple drunk to encourage breeding.
All to make better breeding partners for the pack.
Only a Masters blood is pure enough, in the eye of
the pack, to be allowed into the Ivory Claws tribe. Aaron
goes so far as to say any without their blood should be
killed after the First Change, but he grudgingly accepts
that he doesnt have the resources to purge the worlds
werewolves. But the Masters family line has some specific
genetic traits all of which the packmembers show
that Blessed-by-Ice considers signs of good breeding.
And with this family, breeding is everything.
Aaron and his siblings go to great lengths to protect their eugenic efforts and their perfect bloodline. In
Ajo, people of Mexican descent disappear with alarming
frequency. Their families have little recourse: significant
portions of the police force and judicial system learned
their values from the packs twisted version of the Ivory
Claws credo. The Masters family, still living on old
money, sponsors an anti-immigration program much less
crude and absurdly nationalistic as Randall Kuberts. The
Racial Purity Group serves as a local political lobby to
reduce the permeability of the borders through existing
and legal means.
And, when necessary, the pack runs south for a night
and kills new immigrants, legal or illegal.
Though the population of people of Mexican descent
in Ajo remains high, there are few who dont know not
to mix with the Masters, or with white people in general.
And those of Mexican descent definitely dont get romantically involved with the Masters or white people.
Blessed-by-Ice can become the Pipe Cactus packs
enemies over any number of tiny slights, as if being
Forsaken and of bad blood werent enough. Encouraging
immigration, even indirectly, is a direct threat to the Masters bloodlines. After all, new Mexicans are worse than
the old Mexicans, since new Mexicans wont know the
rules of living in Ajo, where some are sure to settle. An
immensely greater offense is a werewolf of the Forsaken
(or any nonMasters, really) mating with one of the humans claimed by Blessed-by-Ice. Discovery of such an act
spells instant death for the human (even if no child was
conceived, a human with such poor judgment would do
it again) and a crusade for the werewolfs death. Nothing
else is acceptable.
Build members of Blessed-by-Ice with 515 experience points above the characters, unless the players pack
is supposed to be an experienced group.

War Zone: The Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

Lost O bsidian Claws,

Predator Kings Pack
On the Tohono Oodham Reservation, there are more than 20,000
American Indians. Despite the indignities
of being relegated to a bordered reserve
when the land was once theirs, the United
States continues to trample the native
peoples rights time and again. Returning
from traditional ceremonies that are on
their ancestral land south of the border, the
Oodham have been picked up and abused
by the American Border Patrol. Assuming
the Indians are Mexican, the Border
Patrol often treats them even more
harshly when they protest.
Lost Obsidian Claws fights for the
packmembers ancestors and hold as
their territory the entire Indian Reservation. Werewolf blood is strong in the
Tohono Oodham and, though humans be
sheep, the Tohono are as near acceptable as
any human can be to the Predator Kings. The
wolves of Lost Obsidian Claws believes that these
humans were at one time acceptable to Dire Wolf,
and only the spreading rotten influence of the Forsaken
and their soft, stupid people ruined the Papago tribes. Perhaps had the Americans never infected them, the art and
tools of the Tohono Oodham would still be acceptable.
For that, the Lost Obsidian Claws resists America. For the
Border Patrols insults, the pack rages.
Led by Ban Hiinek, the Predator Kings pack strikes
out at the Border Patrol often. Sometimes the werewolves
pose as American immigrant supporters and sometimes
as angry immigrants, but they always whisper the names
of their ancestors to the agents they kill. Most Forsaken
packs have a problem with a murderous Pure pack entering their territory for any reason, even if it is only to kill
humans who are not technically part of the domain. Many
of Lost Obsidian Claws raids takes the pack into the
National Monument, so there have likely already been numerous run-ins between the two packs. If the pack holding
the Pipe Cactus territory supports the Border Patrol in any
visible way, strengthening them or defending them against
the Predator Kings, the two packs clashes becomes much
more personal and much, much more vicious.
The Tohono Oodham pack is an older pack. It has
successfully defended its territory against dozens of upstarts who would want to take it, a few of whom have been
the packmembers own children. A few of these children,
whose efforts pleased their parents, joined the pack and
made it stronger; all others fled the reservation to parts
unknown.
Ban Hiinek, the packs alpha, commands complete
obedience from his packmates. He is fearless in battle

138

and without mercy, though he understands there is other

value to letting an enemy flee. His daughter Chevor is
his second-in-command; when he is gone, others in the
pack are to treat her as though she is her father in all
ways. Both father and daughter are strangely strict in this
regard. Gee Mashad cuts an imposing figure. Though he
is thin enough that his ribs show sharply through his skin,
he is nearly entirely swathed in scars. He claims that each
one is a vanquished Forsaken, as he lets each cut him
before Gee gives his opponent death. Some insist that
Gee Mashad just cuts himself so he can lie about it. Ban
Hiinek, when he hears such talk, just laughs and says that
if either is true, Gee Mashad would still be valuable for his
insanity. Gee is not so forgiving. The other members of
Lost Obsidian Claws give Gee Mashad a lot of space and
privacy.
Because nearly all Uratha born to the Papago either
join the Lost Obsidian Claws or flee, the pack is larger
than most. Eight Pure werewolves make Lost Obsidian
Claws a fearsome opponent in any battle. Luckily, the
packs disdain for humanity causes them to send no more
than four on any basic raid into Pipe Cactus territory. It is
a measured insult to the Forsaken that the Lost Obsidian
Claws does not send more, even when the packmembers
expect an incidental encounter with the territorys pack.
Only when the Predator Kings are specifically hunting
the Forsaken do they attack en masse. The four younger
members of the pack should be approximately on a level
with the pack trying to hold the territory; the four elder

139
members should be made with about 50 additional experience points.

M uerte por Sombra,

Bone S hadow Pack
Ghosts congregate around the events that create
them, and spectres formed by similar events may congregate together. There is no more common cause of posthumous grief in north Mexico than the failure to cross the
border into America. When Mexicans die in the attempt,
a man or a woman, usually with a family, has failed to provide for them and has, in death, failed the last and simple
task of entering American to find a last chance. The
failure can be torturous, and the border simply teems with
the ghosts of failed illegal immigrants, many decades old.
Muerte por Sombra arrived in Sonoyta two years ago,
and the pack is following its purpose. The packs alpha,
Feliz Carrera, lost a father to the border; he tried to cross,
and she never heard from him again. This inspired her
current feelings on immigration: she doesnt care whether
it happens legally or not, so long as it happens without
deaths. All her packmates feel similarly on the matter
of immigration, for various reasons. The act of entering
America should not result in deaths.
Feliz and her pack of six claim territory in Sonoyta.
They originally moved there to investigate the local
border between Mexico and the United States. For a
short while, they explored the local ghost population.
The ghosts became familiar to them, and the pack to the
ghosts. It was only then that the young, idealistic pack discovered that several Pure packs surrounded the packs new
territory and fiercely wanted Muerte por Sombra to join
the Shadows they wished to help. The packs life became a
struggle for everyday survival.
Only recently have Feliz and her packmates have
attained enough resources to pursue their goals and still
keep safe their territory, though Feliz is keenly aware that
the slightest overextension will doom her pack. And as
strongly as the packmembers associate with the dead,
none of them want to be one.
Night is when Muerte por Sombra leaves its territory
for the border. Night is the perfect time: the ghosts have
an affinity with the night, the werewolves have an affinity
with the moon and the darkness aids stealth. Spending
the packs scant free time along the border, the pack meets
with ghosts and learns about the entities plights as best
the pack can. The packmembers have successfully released
one ghosts bonds, allowing it to dissipate forever, but the
others are not so easy.
Unfortunately, every trip to the border is a skirmish.
Even the packs simple fact-finding trips force the packmembers to cross others packs territories, and the packs
expeditions become fights for survival as Pure nip at the
Forsakens heels in the hope of bringing a weak one down.
And, on their arrival at the border, spirits that feed from

the loci of pain and death wait to ambush them, believing

that the ghosts are important to the locis strength.
Strongly opposed to the brutal habits that create
echoes of the dead out of flesh and blood immigrants, the
pack would normally entreat any Forsaken pack that held
the Pipe Cactus territory to help the Muerte por Sombra.
Now, frustrated by the many months of effort lost to the
Pure and the difficulty of actually helping the ghosts the
pack meets, the Muerte por Sombra is likely to eschew the
diplomatic approach. Feliz, equally frustrated because she
believes her father crossed the border here but cannot find
his spirit, is on a short fuse. If the pack in possession of the
Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument acts to reduce the
death of crossing illegally, though whatever method, she
will be content and probably leave that pack alone. If not,
or if the werewolves there make it worse, Feliz will lead
her pack against theirs in battle to chasten them, probably
losing herself to Kuruth in the process.
Even if the pack in the Pipe Cactus territory doesnt
anger Feliz in any way, the Muerte por Sombra still draws
battle-ready Pure into the territory after the packmembers
as many as three nights a week, and the Pure rarely mind
staying behind to do some damage to the other Forsaken
who are conveniently nearby.
Muerte por Sombra is a young pack, but the danger
of staying in Sonoyta has aged them a great deal over the
past two years. Create these werewolves with 2030 experience points above a starting pack.

A mericas Protect ion Socie t y,

Nat ionalist Act ivist Group
Randall Kubert spends a lot of time away from Mrs.
Kubert. He works 35-hour weeks at his construction company, and he works 20-hour weeks as an activist, working
to improve Americas defense against the many problems
that immigration brings. Randall spends at least 10 of
those 20 hours discussing the problems and potential solutions with his fellow patriots in the bar. The rest of the
time, Randall reads literature authored by others as aware
of the problem, writes some himself and even creates
warnings on the matter for the unaware.
Usually, Randall and his crew dont do anything really
worth noticing by the Forsaken. The patriots bitch about
the problem in their favorite bars and when their families
have cookouts together, and they camp out in their SUVs
on a hill some nights and watch for immigrants whom
Randall and friends can chastise and chase back into
Mexico. Randall and his crew sometimes work together,
using photos and video from their nights out to work up
visual and audio propaganda. These Randall distributes
through some of his contacts in Tucson.
Several things could put Randall and his group in
conflict with the dominant pack of the Pipe Cactus territory. One of Randalls friends, watching over the border
one night, sees the werewolves walking around their
territory at night or, worse, returning from some (no doubt

War Zone: The Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

illicit) activity across the border. He alerts the APS, and
they double the frequency of their watches, making it
harder for the pack to operate privately. Randall may even
go so far as to begin calling the Border Patrol, though
he thinks them too soft, to discourage these persistent
wetbacks.
Posing as humans and a part of the human world,
even just a little bit, makes the pack a part of the local society. When Randall notices the stance that these
Americans have on immigration and if its different
from his own very specific position hell grow suspicious. As the werewolves begin to successfully shape their
territory into what they want, Randall sees the changes
in immigration habits and attributes them to the packs
human personae. (He is a sharp cookie, after all.) Unless the Uratha make very deliberate changes or get very
lucky, Randall perceives those changes as a threat to his
countrys welfare and reacts poorly. Americas Protection
Society, at Randall Kuberts direction, girds for war. Misguided fanatics all, and well-equipped with firearms, they
will do anything they can to fight the packs efforts. While
they arent much of a physical threat (though they could
be a fatal inconvenience at an important time), the APS
could leverage their influence in the surrounding area to
give the pack a great deal of trouble with the police, the
Patrol and anyone else they can imagine.

All Together Now!

As with any of the threats mentioned
in this book for the various territories, these
threats can be used separately or in concert.
More so than for any other territory, however,
the threats presented here should be applied in
force. One of the attractive features of using
this region as a territory in your game is that it is
a furious battle, almost non-stop, with too many
different enemies to count.

Garbed -in-Flesh -of-S hadows,

Lord of a Spirit Court
There are few spirits so feared in the Sonoran Desert
as Garbed-in-Flesh-of-Shadows, also called ShadowGarbed. He leads the Court of Lost Hopes, which controls
two of the pain-aspected loci along the border. Unlike many court leaders, who control their sworn spirits
through guile and cunning, Shadow-Garbed controls
them all through fear. None of his followers doubts for
a second that he will cut the skin from their bodies and
consume their innards whole if they disobey him; the
many faces hanging in terror from his hunchbacked shoulders convince his followers all too easily. And they fear
even more Garbed-in-Flesh-of-Shadows unnamed liege.

140

Shadow-Garbed was already well-known in the desert

when word of the mighty pain loci raised a great cry
among spirits. The news created something of a gold rush
toward the border. Shadow-Garbed does not hurry, so he
was certainly not the first to get there, but several members of his court rushed ahead to keep the little spirits in
line and ensure that they did not drain too much Essence
from the valuable loci. When he arrived, few dared argue
with him about which loci were his; therefore, his are the
most powerful. Only after he had claimed two of the loci
did others, bound to other lords, bar him from taking the
rest.
Garbed-in-Flesh-of-Shadows added many pounds to
his shirt that day, but the spirits were loyal to their masters
and barred from those loci he remained. None in ShadowGarbeds court believe that he could not have destroyed
them all, but understand that he chose not to. At least, so
they say. Expressing another opinion aloud is a fair way to
become clothing.
Today, many spirits in the Court of Lost Hopes and
others are surprised that Shadow-Garbed hasnt made a
move on the other loci. All he does is sip daily at those
that are already his and enforce outrageous rules about
when his followers may partake, which is depressingly
infrequently. The braver (or less noticeable) spirits of his
court are leaving, heading to places where there is greater
potential for expansion and for fulfilling the spirits hungers. As his court dwindles, it becomes easier for ShadowGarbed to do as he wishes but it also becomes harder
for him to hold his loci. He confides in no one, so his
plans are a mystery.
Werewolves seeking to control the Pipe Cactus territory may notice Garbed-in-flesh-of-Shadows weakening control of his loci and use him as a launching point
for their destruction of the negative loci on the border.
Unfortunately, Shadow-Garbed is an incredibly able combatant, and he would like nothing more than to add the
spirit-portions of a werewolf or an entire pack to his
ever-growing shirt.
Left alone, Shadow-Garbed enacts his plan to
increase the strength of his loci, until they are as mighty
as any source of Essence can be. With that power at his
disposal, he does what few expect of him: he uses subtlety.
With the power of two such powerful loci at his disposal,
he easily lures spirits to abandon their courts and join
the Court of Lost Hopes. Many come, hoping for better
access to the fount of Essence than their current liege
gives them, and the ranks of Garbed-in-Flesh-of-Shadows
followers swell to thrice their original size. He is a viable
threat to all the other spirit lords on the border, now, and
he wants to take it all. And then he wants to add some
wolfskins to his shirt.
Rank: 4
Attributes: Power 1 3; Finesses 1 1 ; Resistance 1 1
Willpower: 24
Essence: 1 0 (25 m ax)

141

Defense: 1 3
Speed: 3 4
Size: 6
Corpus: 1 7
Influences: Fear
Numina: Blast (Phantasmal Faces Twisted in Horror), Chorus, Claim, Fetter, Gauntlet Breach, Harrow, Materialize,
Material Vision, Omen Gazing*, Wilds Sense
Ban: Unknown
*As the Gift, which Shadow-Garbed can also teach.

Black Fire,
Inexperienced Firestorm-Spirit
For many decades, the great loci of fear and hate went
undiscovered by the eyes of spirit or Uratha. When someone did first find the loci, it was Sand-Doused Campfire, a
morose little spirit that had been the runt of every spirit
court the spirit joined. Unhappy but not ambitious enough
to fight for more power, Sand-Doused Campfire wandered
away through the Sonoran Desert. Pure happenstance led
the spirit to the powerful loci, where, spying unsullied and
unclaimed Essence, the least spirit gorged.
It remembers little of that time. Black Fire now
guesses that it lost control and consumed as much of the
Essence as it could, as its fiery nature drove it to do. As it
fed, Black Fire moved from locus to locus, growing as it
absorbed huge quantities of untouched Essence. The spirit
suspects that it may have drained one or two of the first
loci it came upon completely and reduced the strength

of some others before regaining the presence of mind to

conserve its new assets. Then, sated and tired, Black Fire
buried itself in the sand and slept.
Black Fire only just woke up. After its great binge, it
has become a mighty spirit of flame and firestorms. Black
Fire has a sadistic craving for the feeling of burning flesh
and consuming beloved homesteads, a taste developed
through consuming so much negative energy from the
loci. But Black Fire is moving slowly. The last thing it
really remembers is discovering the first locus as SandDoused Campfire, and the spirit needs to spend some time
stretching its boundaries before it moves off to seek the
great wildfires of California and Colorado.
In the short time since its reawakening, Black Fire has
done much. It is playing with its newfound abilities, and
its games are dangerous. Besides testing its abilities with
control over flame and heat, Black Fire is gathering about
itself a rudimentary spirit court. Still unused to being a
high-rank spirit, Black Fire is inexperienced at the subtle
trades of favors and politics common to the more established courts. When Black Fire sees a spirit, Black Fire
usually insists that the creature forswear its current oaths
and bestow fealty to Black Fire. The new spirit doesnt
know enough to establish what benefits Black Fire offers to
its subjects. Only those spirits that are so weak that they
know they cannot escape, and those that are too craven
to try, bend knee to this strange, awkward behemoth of a
spirit. Others, Black Fire is happy to burn to death, though

War Zone: The Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

many escape while Black Fire is still learning the intricacies of using more powerful Numina.
Black Fire is impatient, and wishes to see more things
and people burn. It is beginning to experiment with its
ability to affect the physical world. Flames burning plants
and scorching the desert to glass make these events visible
to people in the real world. A short while after this, Black
Fire examines the ins and outs of possessing humans and
using them to spread the power of flame. An attempt to
create a locus resonant with fire follows quickly. If the
Uratha do not discover Black Fire and convince it to
move, or destroy it, the greater spirit will decimate the
entirety of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.
Other spirits, cognizant that the lesser members of
their spirit courts are disappearing into the clumsy grasp
of this upstart, may wage war on Black Fire and the traitors that make up its court. Such an event has echoes of
King Spines war, above, and it is in the best interests of
the dominant pack to avoid it.
Rank: 5

142

Attributes: Power 1 5; Finesse 7; Resistance 1 2

Willpower: 27
Essence: 3 0 (5 0 max)
Defense: 1 5
Speed: 3 2
Size: 1 0
Corpus: 2 2
Influences: Fire , Pain
Numina: Blast (Fire and Pain), Chorus, Command Fire*,
Discorporation, Fetter, Gauntlet Breach, Harrow, Living
Fetter, Materialize, Possession, Rage Armor*, Reaching,
Wilds Sense
Ban: Though few know it (as Black Fire bears little resemblance to Sand-Doused Campfire), sand binds this spirit. It
may walk upon and scorch sand, but sand used to attack
or douse it cut its Defense in half. If completely buried
in sand, Black Fire becomes completely impotent until
released.
*As the Gift; Black Fire does not know how to teach it.

143

Chapter III: Lines in the Sand

144

Territories

I dont give a damn if you think you have some sort of

right to this place. I dont care what the Shadow looked like
before you got here, and I dont care if youre the best
thing to happen to this land since the Fall. The only thing
that matters is if you can stop me and mine from taking
this place from you. If you can do that, then its yours by
right. If you cant, you had no right trying to call it your
own in the first place.
Jack Timber, Blood Talon

This book includes:

A players guide to helping
design the elements of the
packs territory, complete
with a system for purchasing
elements both helpful and
baneful
A comprehensive guide to
Storytelling the struggles over
territory and incorporating
the territory as a character in
its own right
Five sample territories
to be dropped into any
chronicle

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